When it comes to understanding large organizations I think a simple principle should apply:

The Purpose of a System is What it Does[1].

Whether malicious or not, the system does what it does. If people wanted it to do something else they would change the system. The reality is that when corporations make mistakes that benefit them those mistakes rarely get fixed without some sort of public outcry, turning the "mistake" into a "feature".

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_purpose_of_a_system_is_wha...