There is one guaranteed method of forcing your competition into action, grab market share at any cost and force your competitors into an existential corner. Babcock knew exactly what they were doing when they bid these contracts, and understood that any resultant losses would be short-lived, because they had already stated they wanted out of this business. Someone was going to have to step up and purchase them, or risk going under and Babcock would then grab an even greater market share and be able to drive the pricing with a changing marketplace with one less competitor - and they definitely didn't want that outcome.
As for forcing Operators to bid with profitable pricing, I'm not sure I can envision the regulatory, financial and legal framework this would require. I would suggest that at this time, none of the Operators on the North Sea might pass that test, as they are still financing expensive non-revenue generating assets and infrastructure, while the operational capacity might be significantly below that projected to fund business expenses planned sometime in the past.
Reviewing the financials of the businesses that publicly report them, none of them might meet that profitability criterion. If they were to increase rates to accommodate these expenses, what kind of rates do you think would be required - and would anyone pay them? It is only a matter of time before the market recovers adequately to fund the operators, or they will simply fail and be acquired for next to nothing by the next helicopter business genius. The current strategy appears to be that it's better to go broke slowly and still have a chance at survival, than losing the bids and associated revenue and predictably going bust. That's business.