The question
"A profitable company shut down last year. No scam, no scandal — it just could not pay its own electricity bill one Friday. How is that even possible?"
Because profit and cash are different substances. Profit is an opinion (accountants' timing rules); cash is a fact (money actually in the bank). The cash flow statement is the document that refuses to accept opinions. Companies can survive years without profit — startups do it daily — but no company survives a cash drought of a few months.