That sounds very much like the first-order reaction they'd expect from upper and middle management. Artificially high prices can give the buyer the feeling that

That sounds very much like the first-order reaction they'd expect from upper and middle management. Artificially high prices can give the buyer the feeling that they're getting more than they really are, as a consequence of the sunk cost fallacy. You can't rule out that they want to dazzle with this impression even if eval metrics remain effectively the same.