[rwmj]

It's the reason why some companies, like IBM [disclosure: I work for Red Hat], seem to sell products even though there seems to be little rational reason why customers would buy them, as in they have poorer performance or quality at a much greater price. Those products are certified against dozens of financial, safety, security or other standards, and customers in certain markets (government, military, nuclear, automotive etc) simply have to buy the certified products. The consequences of not doing so range from products not being supported, all the way to going to jail for gross negligence.

Edit: I wrote a rather highly rated HN comment about why Red Hat makes money last year: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35588297

[jeffrallen]

Another example of this is FIPS-140 crypto. It is objectively bad crypto in the 2020's. But it's mandated in some settings for either bureaucratic reasons or due to regulatory capture.