I don't think these lawyers were trying to give their "best representation". They have seen enough cases to know exactly what the best representation would look

I don't think these lawyers were trying to give their "best representation". They have seen enough cases to know exactly what the best representation would look like and that this wasn't it. But lawyers are like business consultants. Poor work costs them nothing. In fact, it earns them more since they are retained for longer. This is a world where the lawyer needs to actually have an incentive to solve your problem as quickly as possible, and that is extremely rare. Having skin in the game could be one way.