I tend to suspect you're right about this being a case of malicious laziness. Once the engineers started protesting, middle management decided it was easier to feign ignorance of the problem and push on than to come up with a more legitimate value-add. Laziness-driven, but (I suspect) also entirely malicious in the sense that if you had given anyone in the room a choice between receiving a laptop with their crapware and a laptop without, they would have chosen the latter without the slightest bit of hesitation.

Then again, I may be underestimating management's ability to drink their own kool-aid.

thoughtlessness and callousness are far more common sources of evil than either incompetence or malice strictly defined. "People who don't care if I live or I die".

I realize now I've been mixing up "incompetence" "ignorance" and "laziness". I used "ignorance" in the maxim in my first comment where it's actually "incompetence", and then discussed "laziness" in my followup comment. Sorry.

FWIW, I agree with you: I put thoughtlessness and callousness fall under the laziness umbrella.