Some see paying out dividends as saying “you can do more with this money than we can right now”

REITs are required by tax law to pay out 90%+ of their income, and everyone invests in them specifically for the dividend.

If the stock price gets too high, they always dilute it by issuing new shares to raise money for new projects. So you're never expecting lots of appreciation.

There's hundreds of them, and also many private REITs that are unlisted with the same fundamental idea.

Oil, utilities, REITs, small business lenders, etc. all have investors expecting management to just sit there, don't kill the golden goose, and pay regular dividends.

That's how companies used to work. You get some people & capital together to accomplish something and once you've accomplished it you shut down and distribute the company assets.

They are called liquidators.

That Nokia guy when they "sold" to Microsoft. He was the captain put in place to run the ship aground.