I was working for a startup in 2008, and before everything turned to crap, Sequoia gave us up front warning to start preparing for the coming apocalypse, which

I was working for a startup in 2008, and before everything turned to crap, Sequoia gave us up front warning to start preparing for the coming apocalypse, which probably is the reason we survived and made it to an exit of some sort. Over-raising seems like more proactive version of that (2008 still being relatively recent in investors' memory), and VCs likely suggested this to portfolio companies.