The H-1B program is not intended to give employers access to cheaper foreign labor. Its stated purpose is to allow people to immigrate when they can do jobs that US workers can't. When there are already US workers doing those jobs, that's clearly not the case. But that sort of abuse has been all too common.
The recent H-1B suspension probably goes too far the other way -- the program needs more safeguards against abuse rather than to be discontinued -- which requires a legislative solution (auctioning off the slots seems promising). But the legislators are apparently too busy flinging their own scat at each other right now because it's an election year. In the meantime it might not be such a bad thing to fail closed rather than fail open, given the effect of the lockdowns on the unemployment rate.