The easy fix to this is to not exempt “IT Professionals” from overtime in a bullshit rider on a completely unrelated law. Pay overtime, make it expensive to drive employees over 40 hours, and the problem disappears overnight.
That’s exactly what EA did in response to the “EA Spouse” episode. New grad employees are hired as hourly, non-exempt workers and paid overtime for their first couple years. The financial incentive alone doesn’t eliminate crunch, but it is one of many factors that has improved the culture at EA over the last 15 years.