CircleCI lets go of 17% of their workforce today.
So it’s probably not a tax write off but is a loss of whatever the laptops would get in bankruptcy liquidation.
It seems the person's statement I've found is not incongruent with the company also wiping it.
Implication seems to be that they'd have to wipe it themselves
It's simply stating he plans to have it wiped. It does not make any statement about the companies plans.
IMO, even if my company wiped a laptop they gave to me, I'd do another wipe just to make sure it's perfectly fresh and clean. It's way easier to transfer to a pristine Mac than one that's had all of the initial setup skipped to validate a wipe.
If you can’t manage devices in a way which makes it possible to give them away to staff on separation, you can’t manage devices in a way which effectively protects against the risk of theft or loss.