I cannot confirm your theory of what is going on within game companies. You would likely need an insider or a leak for that.

However, I can confirm that business are run (almost into the ground) in a way similar to what you describe. In my specific scenario, the unscrupulous person in charge sought out ways to "cut costs" in order to increase his personal bonus as it was based on budget savings with minimal customer complaints/contract extensions. This included, but was not limited to: not hiring replacements when workers quit, not advertising open positions, asking short staffed departments to cover/do the work of other short staffed departments in addition to their own work instead of hiring more staff, taking on additional projects without hiring additional staff, not buying new equipment even when it was planned in the budget, not approving raises, pressuring supervisors to give middling evaluations regardless of how good or bad an employee was so the head office would not offer raises or seek to replace bad workers, restricting bathroom breaks when understaffed because it could cause lapses in coverage leading to customer complaints, pressuring staff to take lunch at their desks so they can "eat and work", putting off building maintenance unless it was a critcal issue that would lead to customer complaints... you get the idea.

TLDR: You might be right. I have seen it for myself.