To be willfully ignorant of the human cost of business decisions is intellectually dishonest and perpetuates the immoral and downright evil corporate cultures.

Business decisions cannot be amoral unless you pretend they don't impact other human beings. That in and of itself is immoral.

And regardless of what you think the purpose of a company is, they are places where friends socialize and families look out for each other. They're social collectives, and people will do social things where those form. Profit motive or not. They are also a social support system, that's what your salary and health insurance are.

And to that point, "doing what they need to do" is synonymous with hurting people for the benefit of others. Removing pay benefits across the board is not prioritizing individuals, but actively harming the people who can tolerate it the least as a group.

The reason this is bad optics is because rational and moral people look at these decisions and see them not as amoral acts like you pretend, but evil ones.