Bingo. It's all about reducing liabilities on the books, while also making employees effectively beg for vacation. I thought I'd like "unlimited" PTO, but in practice, it's been a source of stress.

Same for me. At a job that had unlimited PTO our boss asked who was taking Veteran's Day off. I said I was because why not it is unlimited. He messaged me saying he was a veteran and he wasn't taking the day off. Like ok? We have "unlimited pto" but have to play guessing games if taking federal holidays off is ok?

Yeah, I would also add its still going to be tracked, but now that's pushed on to managers. Come performance review time, this will have an effect.