As wastefully as we can get away with no?

Not the same thing.

Yes, your wording is better, I don't believe people are actively trying to be as wasteful as possible.

It's what the economy rewards. Simple as that

I don't totally agree. It's what a short-term view of the economy rewards for sure. But even if that was the only view of the economy I've seen plenty of low-performance software written purely out of cargo culting and/or inability or lack of will to do anything better.