I'm saying business managers tend to follow patterns that gets them to the numbers on their paper. What you, or a single employee, sees as counter productive is often just a means to an end.

They'll spend 5x your ask for a raise finding someone to fill your position because denying you keeps the rest of their payroll in line. And if you consider these people communicate across their industries, they will make informal cartels that depress all employee wages.

So I wouldn't be surprised if there was just a natural way to filter our employees who would be to demanding by making them jump through more hoops.