It’s actually a really old practice, “the first DRM”. You’d place things in your game that could only be solved by having the manual on hand, meaning you purchased it. Many games took a jovial approach to it, letting you play the game, but in a broken state if you answered incorrectly and indicated you’d pirated it. Castles II comes to mind, also Kings Quest 5. Others did the “die if you didn’t have the manual”, but those let you go on … just knowing you’d lose every single time.
He was hired, performed the task he was hired for, and left, sounds like it to me.
Executives have used this for decades. Governments with armies hire mercenaries for the same reason, has gone on for centuries. Romans did it, it’s so old. It’s not a far off speculation here … it’s a well known, well practiced pattern of authoritarian behavior.
Why do you guys think bad cops who resign over and over keep getting hired the next city over?