Also, much empire building happens by headcount; if the work's all still getting done, better to retain the headcount than to faff around with redundancies.

I got my first real programming job because I automated dumb work and my then-boss handed me a bunch of extra unautomatable administration work; I went and explained this to his ex-boss at the company he'd left and started competing with, and said ex-boss figured anybody the idiot wanted to shit on was worth a try.

Now, in this case we're talking about two people still within the reporting chain, but if $redditor->boss->boss hated $redditor->boss as much as my first programming boss hated the previous boss, and $redditor->boss->boss managed to look good screwing him ... then it seems entirely plausible.

I still feel like it doesn't smell quite right, but it is to my mind way more plausible than people are giving it credit for.