I would go so far as to argue our assumption about Amazon even wanting to "maximize" productivity may not be correct. It may make sense to guarantee a certain

I would go so far as to argue our assumption about Amazon even wanting to "maximize" productivity may not be correct. It may make sense to guarantee a certain lower-than-maximum productivity than to shoot for a more risky absolute-maximum-at-all-times and sometimes miss that shot, and this system goes for the former.