That does not match my experience in any company I worked at.

We would solve problems and when we had a decent solution we would discuss with our management whether they thought it was noteworthy enough to start the internal patent application process.

The stage of development at which a patent was pursued depended on how much of a breakthrough it was.

Of course you don't design something "exclusively to patent it". It would make no sense -- a patent has no real-world value unless the invention itself has a significant expected ROI.