I think we're actually saying the same thing from two different directions. My concern is that companies that offer a hollow 401(k) are actually getting some k

I think we're actually saying the same thing from two different directions. My concern is that companies that offer a hollow 401(k) are actually getting some kind of kickback for forcing all of their employees to one company as their retirement benefits manager, or to a specific subset of portfolio options with that company, and the employees have no effective recourse, because of the separate contribution limits. If the limits were combined, there would be no reason whatsoever to insert the no-contribution employer as middleman into retirement planning, or even to deposit more into the employer-sponsored plan than the maximum matching amount. Most of the companies are implicitly saying "you're on your own after you retire", but the law still says you have to invest through your employer to min/max your retirement plan. Given that many of them will dump employees long before retirement age anyway, it makes less and less sense for any retirement account to inexplicably have an employer's corporate logo pasted onto it.