The original decision is interesting because at first it seems very stupid (as acknowledged right there in the article). It's a more expensive way to do the same thing. But man, what a sales pitch, not only for their own customers but also to employees. The feeling is that the company values its people and is willing to really depend on them, and look, it actually paid off when they did that.

I think it's common to claim to care about the people without really depending on them for much (like with perks) or to depend on the work but treat people badly, and doing both is hard.