[JimboOmega]

There are many situations, especially as a middle manager, where you are incentivized to play organizational games more than actually deliver.

We (I'm a middle manager myself) Aren't stupid, so we will.

More headcount and influence means more (at least potential) business impact, and often promotions. If the organization encourages us to fight with other managers to get more of that, that's what we'll do instead of running our organizations better.