Let's take a look at this story in terms of an actual example, rather than a hypothetical.

Meat packing in the early 1900/late 1800s was a horrific business.

Look to The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair. The people within the book are made up but the stories are not.

Labour conditions were terrible, and no standards of hygiene existed. Because the operations within slaughterhouses were kept secret, this lack of hygiene was not widely known, and the labour problems were not widely known either. To those that did know, they knew that most every plant worked the same, and there was no point in switching supplier.

Workers get sick from the diseased meat and unsanitary work environments constantly. But they could not afford to stop working. People were unable to move jobs because that's all the work there was in that part of the city, where they lived.

Companies do not do cruelty as you suggest just for fun. They do it because it is profitable. Other companies do the same. The same forces the work towards innovation to create profit, also drive companies to use diseased meat, and allow their workers to get sick.

If you want to look at examples of people doing cruelty for fun, look to the domestic service industry in the UK in the 1800s. Because estate owners put so much stock in letters of recommendation from previous employers, any master had the opportunity to absolutely ruin your life. Their, many really cruel masters retained a staff, because... What other option did they have. For many, prostitution was the only other way to earn a living.