[hschenker]

Very good point - in the dinner examples, if the parties involved agree with the proposal, everyone involved "wins" in some form or another:

The person paying builds up "you'll owe me later" points; the rest of the table saves money, at least in the short term.

The people who've already been served get to eat immediately, which they probably want to do anyway; the others who haven't received their food yet can stop feeling guilty for stopping the others from eating.

Overall, a whole lot of uncomfortableness is avoided by agreeing to the ridiculous reason.

Compare that to the the territorial conflict example, in which one of the two parties wins nothing, and instead, loses something very important to them.