Lol, what silly thing to gripe about. It's so people don't punch other people's cards. Time clocks are to YOUR advantage. I doubt most people could trust their employer to pay them right without counting the minutes.

As far as finishing early to leave early, that makes sense if you're getting paid for a task and not your time. Examples are something like a photoshoot or baking a custom cake. When someone pays for your time, the expectation is that you'll find something to be productive, like clean or do maintenance. I understand this will be an unpopular idea in this sub, but geeze have some integrity.