[That's just what she's expecting him to focus on, and it's what stuck in her head too. It was awful but they were free. The why, though?]

Right. CERES profits. It's the only company on the planet. And they very well could have lowered profits. If they were aggressive, or natives. There's any number of things that they could have done that would harm CERES business practices, and you've seen just how they regard the importance of profit.