This type of post is really easy to say if you have some sort of personal equity in the business. The larger the business, the more that equity gets diluted.

I work in a MegaCo, which has these sorts of referral bonuses. In addition, teams in the company are spread out over individual clients. If I refer someone, it is more likely than not that I won't ever work with this individual. I'm paid by salary (not profit-sharing) so I don't have a financial stake in the efforts of the firm. I'm not management, so many decisions about what this new employee would be doing are removed from me.

If I don't get to work with my referral and I don't stand to gain equity from their work, a referral bonus makes the economic seesaw balance. Saying it's "pants on head stupid" is short-sighted and only applicable to extremely small companies.