This reads like a case of game design by spreadsheet to me. Instead of the lead designers being creative persons making creative decisions, these are accountants that are designing a game by ticking boxes. They didn’t try to make a game that they would like to play, they tried to make a game that they think others would like to play.

Which company?

Not ibm. You might be thinking of Bell: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakup_of_the_Bell_System

So cats are ok with us tripping over them, as long as we profusely apologize afterwards, interesting :)

It sounds like the 2 cats count on the smart cat to get the door open for them. They have no reason to learn as long as the present system works.

My last cat had 100% faith that he would be completely safe when I was near, basically trusting that nothing bad could happen to him. If he was lying on the leather couch, stretched or turned and started slowly sliding (more like flowing like a liquid) out of the couch, then he’d not react, he’d just continue sliding until I caught him and put him back on the couch. The kind of trust that a toddler can have in the infallibility of the parent to catch them. As long as it never gets betrayed, they don’t lose that trust.

I imagine that if I had been clumsy around him: tripping over him when he was standing in the way or not always catching him, that he would have lost that trust.

The cat before that only was adopted when he was already older and more world wise, he was always attent and seemed aware of the size difference and the possibility of accidents if we were to trip over him.