IMO that's the only reason for employers to offer "unlimited PTO" schemes.
A lot of companies also have continual headaches about requests for unused time to roll over into the next fiscal year. So not only is the accrual a problem in regards to terminated employees but it's a debt on the books that has to be tracked and serviced.
My fun story about that is the large company I worked for a couple of decades ago - they still had a policy that allowed you to bank up to a year's worth of vacation time. After a few employees decided to retire a year early by taking a 52-week vacation and then retiring, the whole policy was trashed.
Imagine having a coworker retire and you can't fill the headcount for an entire year because they're still an active employee.
Because, as mentioned above, this was an old-school company. Departments had budgets, and your labor budget was fixed and pretty much determined how many people you could have.
That retiree on 'vacation' was drawing a paycheck and was still part of your yearly budget. Asking for a replacement meant increasing the budget by that extra person's salary, and that was a bureaucratic problem.
Oh, and here's the fun conclusion to the story I forgot to mention. When the policy was cancelled and rollover was taken away, every employee got paid a one-time lump sum for their accrued rollover time. Some people got 30-40 weeks of pay in a single check. And that launched many employees into a higher tax bracket for that year. Lots of fun all around.
A lot of companies also have continual headaches about requests for unused time to roll over into the next fiscal year. So not only is the accrual a problem in regards to terminated employees but it's a debt on the books that has to be tracked and serviced.
My fun story about that is the large company I worked for a couple of decades ago - they still had a policy that allowed you to bank up to a year's worth of vacation time. After a few employees decided to retire a year early by taking a 52-week vacation and then retiring, the whole policy was trashed.
Imagine having a coworker retire and you can't fill the headcount for an entire year because they're still an active employee.