I've been thinking about it, and I think it's mostly a balancing of the scales - the company sets the initial terms of the contract almost every time, and has a completely disproportionate amount of power in the relationship. This is a bit more of a spin the other direction, but it still doesn't quite get there.

Yeah, it's fucked up, but it's a response to the company being able to do more things that are fucked up and doesn't come out of nowhere.