Dom,
it is probably not that they are being inefficient or behaving illogically. It is more like that they are optimizing a utility
function somewhat different from the one you would naïvely expect.
(A mathematician takes a walk and comes by a house on fire; he calls
the fire department and they come and put out the fire. The next
day he comes by a house that is not on fire; he sets it on fire and
walks on after thus having reduced the problem to a previously solved
one.)