"I wonder if it's because some of those at the mid-to-level making these decisions are under the same market pressures as the rest of us to show they've actually 'done sometime'"
Definitely true. Also don't discount the influence of good old fashioned corruption - cash kickbacks, job promises, gifts, etc., I've seen IT contracting decisions so dumb that graft is far and away the most logical explanation.
I wonder if it's because some of those at the mid-to-level making these decisions are under the same market pressures as the rest of us to show they've actually 'done sometime' - so they can slap this on a resume and prepare it for an interview when they roll out of the org in a year or two after implementation. This seemed to be the history in the IT department at the hospital I worked out where they had a decade of zombie projects that sorta worked because they were implemented, barely supported, and the persons that made the decision had bounced to something else, leaving IT holding the bag.