This reluctance to provide any substantive reference often results in references just being "yes this person worked here from this date to this other date".
My first retail job was at Sports Direct, one of the worst companies I've ever worked at, and I've worked at some terrible companies. I worked there for two years and bad a bit of a falling out with one of the managers. I handed in my notice, worked it, and a month after leaving I was given a written warning for not turning up to work, and I got in a pretty big argument with that manager over the phone.
The manager from Game asked my friend, who worked with me at Sports Direct, about the reference, and he said it was total bullshit. Still, with the bad reference, I couldn't be hired. Thankfully, once I knew what was causing the problem I simply left Sports Direct off of my CV and the offers came flooding in. I worked one more retail job and then started landing coding jobs.
What you say is correct. Every company I've worked at has declined to give a reference to very poor staff members. However, in some industries I reckon bad references happen a lot more than we'd like to think. Having seen first-hand what a bad reference can do I would never give a bad one, and even when asked by someone who I worked with who I knew was not a great co-worker I gave a reference.