HR has their own obligations to the people they report to. If they can't justify the manager's suggestion without sticking their necks out to a degree they're

HR has their own obligations to the people they report to. If they can't justify the manager's suggestion without sticking their necks out to a degree they're comfortable with they probably won't. They'll mostly side with the manager (because selection bias, not a lot of managers are bringing them cases of people they want fired where that outcome is not compatible with the processes) but may very well tell a manager to just deal with it if that's what's "doing their jobs" looks like. Things like this are never as black and white as people looking for cheap upvotes make them out to be.