Deflection or necessity?

Recently, often began to face the so-called "deflection."

The introduction of something (a new mail server with enhanced functionality - for example, switching from postfix to exchange with all the consequences that follow) without agreeing with the business need for this innovation, but only to “show” the work on automation. As a result of what - a lot of problems profit.

So the question is - how often does this happen to the rest? Or is it just that I fall into such places?
And what are the advantages in this “deflection”? Although I don’t see specific advantages in this (at least for business)