I left big corporate tech a decade ago, and it was true then too. You'd get bonuses and stellar performance reviews for fixing big, high-visibility problems, or

I left big corporate tech a decade ago, and it was true then too. You'd get bonuses and stellar performance reviews for fixing big, high-visibility problems, or many small ones that amounted to little more than clients asking us to look things up in the docs for them. If you tried to help someone who was unhappy and at risk of leaving for another vendor, but not someone who plays golf with your boss's boss, you risk getting a DSAT from them, but no credit if you retain that client. If you fix the thing that prevents big problems, or many small questions, from coming in in the first place, you also get no credit. More likely, if you do something that brings 100 problems down to 5, you're blamed for those 5 that come in.