I've been with my current employer for about 7 years. Each employee is supposed to get a yearly review by their manager. Fair enough. I have my own qualms about those, but I've concluded that they are largely based on subjective criteria, imperfect — and at least with my employer, they don't have an appreciable impact on pay, promotions, etc. So, largely performative.
What gets me is this: I've had multiple managers over me that just weren't any damn good at their job. And yet their appraisals are done by someone none the wiser: some admin personality that comes down from their white castle once a year to appraise them.
Who is better to appraise a manager than their employees? We are the ones interacting with them daily. We adjust to their cadences and policies. We deal with bad. We take the heat when things don't work out well. We have to deal with the bad reputation of our unit. We feel the burden of bad morale. No one else is more qualified to evaluate them than the worker.
I will admit that, somewhat unscrupulously, I obtained a copy of one of my bad manager's appraisals and, needless to say, it was glowing. So, kudos to that manager for putting on a good show. That's probably how she got hired in the first place although to be fair I think most people lean towards butt-kissing to get a job. It's easy to do, at the least. And it's not her fault if the hiring managers are lousy at evaluating talent.
We employees have been given opportunities to say our piece via Survey Monkey or some such thing, but it was, again, clearly for show as no change in this manager's work ethic, behavior or attitude changed one whit.
I assume this is the norm. Management looking out only for themselves, disregarding the opinions and observations of 'subordinates' and lusting for the status quo.