One one hand true, on the other hand running all these huge corporations are not cheap. United has 440 000 employees. And who knows how many subcontractors, and so on.

The end-to-end cost society spends on paperpushing is easily hundreds of billions of dollars per year. (Including time lost while waiting on hold to call them, the actual literal work of dealing with these fucking printouts at each stakeholder, the extra effort placed on the paper industry, the postal service, and so on.)