Profitability can be pointless. I used to work for a government contractor. We charged the government per hour, so there was tons of bullshit we had to do to get even the simplest thing done. Some steps were required by law - laws created with the help of our company. A lot of time was also wasted on extremely slow computers, pointless meetings, etc. I’d estimate that >50% of the the jobs there would not be needed if operations were run effectively.

Now think of every sector with strong ties to the government. Education, defense, banks, healthcare, etc. All have massive bureaucracies designed to create jobs and siphon money from the government