Using money you owe for something else for as long as you get away with is hardly alien in business in general. It is why most companies (almost every company?) delay payment of invoices for as long as legally possible, no point losing that fraction of whatever in interest (or interest saved on debt). Heck, with regard to cheques it is why banks held on to 3+ clearing periods on those and other payments for as long as they did. Doing the same with outgoings to employees isn't a stretch that would surprise me in the slightest.

Not really. More like, “we could make an extra hundred bucks a week by doing X”. So they do X. If it’s annoying to the employees, that cost is not considered.

Yeah it isn’t profitable when you then spend 30% of your staffing costs on hiring new people as the old ones leave

To me late payment means they are possibly insolvent so I am looking for another job.