That's the creepiest thing. They are kind of a corporate pet. I don't think they were any one specific person's pets. It was as if they were the corporation's pets. They existed basically to look and sound nice, while doing nothing of particular value, for the benefit of the corporations. It's not like the board of directors was actively observing them and getting praise. They were pets of a master that isn't real. It was like the act of being a pet was being fetishized.

My only explanation is that there are some number of predators hunting these people at different levels and in different ways that wanted this kind of thing to continue.