Oftentimes you will encounter a number of standards enforcement mechanisms to prevent the junior programmers who don't know any better (and the senior ones who should know better) from doing dumb stuff. When these are enforced at build time, it is usually quite fine, as it is not very costly. However, some of them are quite costly, as they are essentially runtime or interpreter modifications.

I grant that in a few exceptions, there is no other solution than to do so. Most of the time there is always a behavior modification which is sufficient, especially with proper incentivization. For example, do you go out and buy those fancy mitre saws that know how to stop from cutting off your finger, or do you just take care around circular saws? Of course you simply take care.

That said, at a certain scale stupidity will always creep in, and the overriding impulse is to insulate yourself and the firm from their impact. Overcomplicated safety devices and insurance schemes result, when the proper remedy is to fire careless people. Just like people will write weeks of code to avoid hours of meetings, they will also install huge and complicated gimcracks rather than confront careless people.

This impulse to avoid conflict is the root of many evils in the firm. Like in relationships, who cares if you make the other person mad? Sometimes making people feel something is the only way to get your message across. At the end of the day, they'll either stick around or leave; demonstrated preference reveals the truth obscured by clouds of emotion. And there are always more people.