I had a friend who worked at EA. He discussed with the guy behind Dungeon Keeper: the mobile garbage game, and the guy told him they should just push the limit (of the mik-o-meter), because this IP was so strong. It turned out pretty well indeed....
A few years later, he was trying to convince the guy in charge of Star Wars Battlefront 2 that paywalling Darth Vader was a big No, but the guy wouldn't listen, which led us to the lootbox disaster.
Bottom line is that it is not only the top management who is at fault at EA. Many of the product managers seem to be into abusing their fanbase...
That said, it works similarly in most big companies that reached the "bureaucratic stage". Upper management is so craven that it will say yes to any unreasonable demand from the top management, regardless of the long term damage for the company, or sometimes, even the feasability of the demand.