If the system sounds crazy it’s because it’s being used for a job it was never designed to do. The H1B system was marketed to the public as a temporary skilled worker visa. Mostly by executive fiat, it was turned into a de-facto permanent immigration mechanism. The whole system makes much more sense if you look at it in terms of the original purpose: to allow temporary workers to work in fields where there is a shortage, but who will mostly go home at the end of the 3- or 6-year period.