That and the fact that upper management also wants a way to compare employee performance ACROSS teams or departments to decide who's a "rising star", who deserv

That and the fact that upper management also wants a way to compare employee performance ACROSS teams or departments to decide who's a "rising star", who deserves a promotion or a raise (because the raise budget is always limited so they want to pick the most valuable performers). Hence the "need" for a standardized performance review, which is bullshit anyway because a true equal assessment would mean that all employees are assessed by the same person/group, which never happens.