This is missing one extremely cynical interpretation.

What if the output isn’t the real goal, it’s having a workforce that thinks more like footsoldiers than professionals?

Of course 2x hustle doesn’t scale to 2x output, you can’t tell me that all these smart people are just ignorant of that. It has to be a different thing getting selected for.

This is why I'm not a consultant. It's a generalization, but there's a kind of learned helplessness almost in the culture of the big4. Client has a new requirement, and someone says "oh guess it'll be an allnighter, i'll start ordering pizzas". Nah man, this is like four extra hours of work- push the deadline, or just work smarter.