Very well put, Norman Stanley Fletcher. "Arrogant" and "vindictive" describe the situation very well.
Cruella/JL claim that she/they will look at individual cases... I doubt it, they don't reply to emails unless they need an answer, phoning is a waste of time and you just know that anything sent on old-fashioned paper will be ignored.
As you say, having selected the right person for the job, the intelligent HR person will continue to woo the person concerned, or at least leave the door open for acceptance at a later date. Employing the right people is their raison d'etre , and every person they reject for not accepting their first (and, it seems, only) offer represents a significant loss to the company financially.
The policy will no doubt change when they start having trouble finding crews, as it has before.