They weren’t so much sacked as they were made obsolete by technology and rising productivity. You could still find bus conductors in China even just 10 years ago where they still made sense a bit (if only to collect fares).
Last time I was in Delhi (about 5 years ago) there were still elevator operators. Not only completely useless to me as a user, but also taking up space preventing people getting in when it’s busy.
You can pay someone to do something that’s not needed, and maybe it gives them a sense of purpose based on a Victorian/puritanical view of the world (rather than just giving the money regardless)
However to me it’s like doormen and bellboys at US hotels or people behind a counter at a shop, it’s unnecessary human contact (which is horrendous), and it reduces functionality (reducing capacity of fixed infrastructre)
A better solution would be to employ people in more productive enterprises.
