The problem is, the whole mess becomes so abstracted away from the real goal: shipping software to customers and making money. Government can get away with it,

The problem is, the whole mess becomes so abstracted away from the real goal: shipping software to customers and making money. Government can get away with it, because they're the only game in town, but a company doesn't have the luxury of operating with a crippling level of inefficiency for long. Whatever 'deal with the devil' that existed when the fence was erected may no longer be relevant or worth the overhead, but the policies live on. There may even now be individuals who's jobs are now directly related to enforcing/implementing the policy, and they have an interest in perpetuating it at any cost.