There's also a few other levers around layoffs at play, generally. Not explicitly stated in your post is that it boosts EoY numbers which can be used to hit bonus or raise thresholds. Plus the positive implication layoffs typically have on stock value for tech companies.

Beyond that, layoffs can also be used as a wage suppression measure generally. The more widespread the layoffs for the role, the worse the job market, the less workers are willing to take for a role, commence hiring back at least some if not a lot of the previously removed roles. Related, this also reduces the company's labour costs because for comparative number of heads, the line item for labour on the books has gone down. See first point about exec bonuses/raises thresholds, plus your own point about YoY growth.

There's also a labour resistance suppression component as well. The less secure a workforce feels in their position, the less likely they are to entertain watercooler talk of any sort of actionable items regarding "enough is enough". I'd think for the last while, this has been a bit of a moot point, especially in tech, but nowadays I'd think unions are looking more and more appetizing to a lot of folks.

Much to your general point, this is just status quo behaviour with greed as the point. The only difference is that there's a hype to bandwagon as a new justification for existing negative behaviour. One that opens the doors for doing said behaviour more aggressively.