In North America, lots of talent (i.e. new grads) would straight up not pick companies with dress codes. Pay also tended to be not different, and "prestige" of working for X is not really a thing.
So everything changed. Also, even in the dressed up companies, they had "dress down days". People liked them. So they had more.
I made that decision almost 15 years ago. Had offers from two companies. They were similar jobs, but with one I had to wear a button up shirt, slacks, and a tie. The other I could wear shorts and flip flops in the summer, jeans and a hoodie in the winter. I chose the latter.
I had to wear a suit at a place that it would be illegal for the client to interact with me. Logic and dress codes aren't always friends.
It's not Germans that do this to themselves, it's people working in financial institutions. I work for a non-financial software company in Germany and nobody wears suits here unless you have an important client visit.
Yes, wearing a well-fitting, tailored suit made out of fabric with a good hand appropriate to the weather is a horrible (horribly comfortable) experience to subject yourself to. Having plenty of functional jacket pockets for all of your belongings is a special kind of hell.
Compare with $25 jeans and a $10 t-shirt that people will wear everyday, it's pretty easy to see why they go with that. Lotta sizes and fits that will eventually fit you in that price range. You can have ~7 pairs of jeans and t-shirts for the price of one very cheap fused low end fabric suit. Enough to have something different for every day of the week. You can have about 15 pairs of jeans and t-shirts for 1 made to measure suit. You can have about 70 pairs of jeans and t-shirts for the cost of one bespoke suit. That's enough jeans and t-shirts to last you over a decade.
We didn't even factor in the cost that nicer dress shoes cost and the cost of fitted dress shirts or all the accessories that can go with suits. (Belts, pocket squares, ties, bowties, tie clips, cufflinks, etc.)
Do you regularly buy suits, and have you bought one recently? You post is the kind of unfounded delusions people have about suits (easy to spot when someone mentions the "need" for bowties...) that keep them from buying one. Discount suits are a thing. The last suit I bought cost $50. Polyester fabric is cheap, far more durable than cotton, and comfortable. Alterations are $15-30. Department stores have sales - my summer suit is a great linen I bought for under $100 from a major department store (I think it was Nordstroms).
> That's enough jeans and t-shirts to last you over a decade.
Suits will easily last you for over a decade, as long as you don't cycle in them (that will destroy any pair of pants quickly). My first suit turns 15 years old this year and it is still in good shape. Polyester and wool fabric will outlast the cotton that jeans and t-shirts are made out of many times over. Suits as work clothing work out to be less expensive than replacing the discount $25 jeans and t-shirts that fall apart after a year.
Mail-order made-to-measure dress shirts are less expensive than off-the-rack dress shirts in department stores. Last time I ordered I paid about $40 per shirt (easier to buy in bulk once a decade... again these shirts last), department store ones were $80 and up.