Question from an European: Why did they need to be so generous? From what we hear over here you have at will employment so they can just fire you on the spot, no need to pay anything, no? But then I read stories like these which are the opposite. I'd kill for something like this over here.

Paying an expensive senior (older) employee to quietly and happily go away without raising a fuss may have saved money in the long term. I am sure they did not offer the same deal to everyone.

To retain and recruit talent, and protect from lawsuits (you usually have to sign a release to receive severance/a buyout). Generally only difficult to recruit and highly in-demand employees get these packages - most people over here would also kill for something like this.

Wrongful termination lawsuits are a thing, and the law protects workers from various things, including age discrimination. There are also limits on mass layoffs. All of these combine to make firing people much harder than folks think, especially at larger companies, and especially especially when large numbers of people are affected.

In short, don’t believe Internet memes. The US isn’t the capitalist hellscape disaffected commenters pretend it is.