If I'm following OP's question, it was basically that all of this makes sense from a "people are doing what benefits them the most" POV. But some time went by

If I'm following OP's question, it was basically that all of this makes sense from a "people are doing what benefits them the most" POV. But some time went by and it morphed into being overall bad for the McDonald's brand, and that's the puzzling part of it. You would think Micky D's would have power to step in and say "enough is a enough, this is hurting our image, quit fucking around and fix the machines or we find another vendor." I would agree Micky D's corporate probably does have sway here, so this problem probably just isn't interesting or important enough for them to do anything about it. Maybe ice cream is such a small part of their sales they don't see the point in raising a stink about it. Or maybe the vendor just happened to Game of Thrones their way into a little niche of power that Ronald can't do anything about. And for the size that they are, I find that pretty interesting and puzzling as well!