It seems insane to think that a programmer would just "decide" to build a feature like that. It would have to be decided by the product people, who probably think it's a good idea.
That is exactly right. A product person who wants to sell this system wants as many bells and whistles as possible because, hey who knows what the one thing is that will push the customer over the edge into the "buy zone" right? So you end up with all sorts of stuff in there. In my experience it is rare to have a programmer who will push back on that request.
