I see; this is a very different workflow than I am describing (or am used to). While I understand it's useful as a snapshot, that's not a useful use of history

I see; this is a very different workflow than I am describing (or am used to). While I understand it's useful as a snapshot, that's not a useful use of history in Git. In fact, it's quite useless, and I'd agree that those commits should not remain, and should be replaced with something useful. But since context has been lost, that "useful" commit might just be a single, squashed one; I've observed this situation at work from others. So, this is a situation where those users are digging their own hole.