Does anyone else feel like they’re getting piped when they receive something of minimal monetary value for “employee appreciation”?

It feels like an employer’s halfhearted contingency plan to pay you as little as possible without making you quit. Thanks for this useless gift card, but I’d have felt more appreciated if I was given a raise greater than 1.4% for my annual appraisal when inflation went up 6.8% and we had multiple meetings talking about how we profited during the pandemic.