> Obviously not true, in fact none of the companies I worked in that was the case.

Selection bias. In some companies access to an engineers single workstation allows access to potentially billions of dollars worth of intellectual property. Imagine China stealing the design for the latest aircraft engine from GE, or accessing the PC of the most senior accounts payable person in a company and getting access to actual money. Just because YOU weren't the most valuable target in a company doesn't mean no one in your role is. My account at my company is constantly under attack because I'm the VP of IT in healthcare. The reality is "my" account doesn't even have any powers, it's just email. My accounts with sensitive access are separate.