I don't think you watched the video which provides a much more simple explanation (and more importantly simple to carry out) than "ice cream is a loss leader that a bean counter discovered 85% reliability minimizes losses".

For one, franchise owners decide when to do repairs that are prohibitively expensive. Two, the failures are not "random" and likely store based (one franchise down for 2 weeks rather than 10 franchises down a day) because it's owner discretion on when to fix it. Three, there is demonstrated profit in the McDonalds <-> Taylor collusion based monopoly.

There's no need for an elaborate spreadsheet conspiracy. Taylor is using a contract which enables them to charge exorbitant amounts for labor and prevent the free market (iFixIt and Kytch) from providing equivalent labor (theoretically under equivalent liability) at a much cheaper cost.

There is very clear conflict of interest.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conflict_of_interest

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principal%E2%80%93agent_proble...

Mcdonalds is making a contractual obligation on behalf of the franchises and that contractual obligation benefits McDonalds at the cost of the Franchises.