I have been following the whole HF19 discussions with great interest. To me this a great example of emotions vs rationale.

On paper what you say makes absolute logical sense.
For most people it doesn't at all on an emotional level.

It is well known that the fear of loss is a powerful emotional motivator.
People can't articulate it but seeing something go from 100% to 25%
is experienced emotionally as a loss, so people will avoid it.
Doesn't matter that they are actually in exactly in the same situation as before, on a deep emotional level it seems like a negative to avoid.

You can't program incentives without keeping these emotional factors in mind. Perception is everything! Check out
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loss_aversion

People do weird stuff to avoid even minor losses, actually they'd much rather avoid loss than take a chance for a much higher gain. That seems to be what is happening with the whole HF 19 saga.
It doesn't make sense but there you go...