I'm not making your point. You had a small part of the truth.
It's much more complicated than you think. Sometimes MAD works, but sometimes the rivals do cross-licensing. "Getting more patents just in case we need them" is maybe one of the reasons, but there are so many others:
1) To protect the things we're already doing
2) To protect things we MIGHT do
3) Because that's what big companies do. Herd-following.
4) To keep someone else from horning in on our space
5) To use for cross-licensing or counter-suits
6) To sell in case we never want to commercialize
Don't underestimate #3. Every business "analyst" looks at your patent production.
It's much more complicated than you think. Sometimes MAD works, but sometimes the rivals do cross-licensing. "Getting more patents just in case we need them" is maybe one of the reasons, but there are so many others:
1) To protect the things we're already doing
2) To protect things we MIGHT do
3) Because that's what big companies do. Herd-following.
4) To keep someone else from horning in on our space
5) To use for cross-licensing or counter-suits
6) To sell in case we never want to commercialize
Don't underestimate #3. Every business "analyst" looks at your patent production.