This is an interesting viewpoint. In Shadowrun, the megacorps are very political and have way more power than in the real world. It's easy to envision the pulling some shady stuff and hurting people. Of course, profit and power are any corp's prime objectives, but how that manifests can mean a lot of things. Putting players inbetween two warring corps where they have to choose a side can be an interesting plot line.
By design, PCs are guns for hire. I've had some games where player's are encouraged to sign up with a corp for various reasons and, in my mind, there is an inevitable progression in a long campaign where players strongly benefit from alliances with larger organizations. Those can be corps, or other types of organizations. Shadowrun has lots of source material about terrorist cells and gangs.
Many of the best stories are only tangentially about corps themselves, but they make compelling villains because of their power.
RE: Running The Sprawl: First impressions