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As someone who ships items daily with the postal service, the cube is not necessary. Yes, you have to pay extra for the "package rate" to get delivery confirmation, but you don't actually have to add extra items to make it a package.

This is the fault of the shipper, not the postal service.

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Large corporations generally don't feel like they can get away with ignoring rules just because they aren't enforced. What if the Post Office suddenly started rejecting "packages" that their policy said they should reject? The corporation wouldn't be able to change their process quickly, and would lose a lot of money until it was fixed.

I'd expect they have some sort of rule that obliges them to use the cheapest service for each particular item sent, but that leaves them free to send whatever they like. So if they wanted to send a letter, and the letter rate was lower than the package rate, then they would be obliged to send it at the lower rate, otherwise they are "wasting" money.

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