It depends on the business model of the photographer. Higher end photographers usually work as you describe, but some, particularly on the lower cost end or in

It depends on the business model of the photographer. Higher end photographers usually work as you describe, but some, particularly on the lower cost end or in places like malls (think Santa or Easter Bunny pictures), will take dozens of photos for free, but then offer packages of images/prints at various price points. Usually there's a digital package that will include high res versions of all images along with the full rights, but that tends to be priced relatively high. What some clients might do is to buy a lower end package (or none at all) and then try to make prints of additional pictures from the digital sample images they're given, thereby circumventing the photographer's business model. The resulting photos are of course of poor quality, due to low resolution and imperfect watermark removal, but some people really don't care if it can save them some money. You're right that it all seems unnecessarily complicated, but look at the healthcare system we have.