As a working data analyst in the non-profit sector I find that very often that higher management simply overlooks an analysis or report I produce based on questionable data quality from poor administrative work in the past or conciders a variable unnecessary and has been still tracked for some reason. Thus uprooting any significant results I may have derived.
I've run into this a couple of times here and at a previous job and It made me start asking why I was even employed in the first place, and why were these metrics here in the first place? I asked one of my coworkers and fellow analysts who was working there much longer than me and he responded simply as:
"Who knows, it might be useful some day. Better some data than no data"
This sentiment does not sit well with me, because if a variable is useless and has no ramifications in terms of policy why track it?
Is this normal for most companies to do?