It is helpful to think of it in terms of unit economics. If a company sells a product, it needs to eventually make profit on each unit. (cost < price per unit)

When it comes to owning a share, it eventually needs to make the investor money through dividends or price appreciation. The argument for high PE ratio is price appreciation (growth), but exponential growth is very hard to sustain, so PE ratio has to come down to a certain level in the long term. Also, there is always a risk of a company declining or even folding.