I had something like this recently, while operating a flight to LHR. I got a call from Load Control, via the Dispatcher's mobile phone, they wanted to confirm that there was no RTOW restriction on our flight.
I pointed out that we were 15 tons under our MZFW and as this was an aircraft capable of flying 15 hours plus, it was impossible to be RTOW limited to Europe out of Dubai.
The thing is they must have those figures in front of them and been able to see that we were 100 tons less than any MTOW restrictions
I think it is just another example of cheap labour not understanding the job, so they make everything more complicated than it needs to be and put in rules, embargo's and restrictions to stop them ever having a chance to make a mistake they will be blamed for, regardless that the result is staff don't get to travel.
As always this is something that requires education and training.