Would it not be in the same ballpark of reasoning though as updating your older products to intentionally slow them down and influence more sales, or updating your trains to conveniently not work when they're at a competitors depot?

Sure it'd be a more blatant demonstration of sociopathy and criminal intent to commit widespread theft of tools, but really we'd only need one missing detail, and that's a connection back to the companies, the theft is already happening.

In this case it doesn't seem it's nationwide or one particular manufacturer, but if you're in a position to even consider such a thing, I'd think you either don't care or don't anticipate being caught, and perhaps don't care about precision or results, which really reduces the problem. Like if you're a popular retailer of many brands, but seeing sales slump. Now you can just find someone who already coordinates thieves to steal any equipment in some region, and if all you care about is that warehouse is filling up and your sales are increasing, your first problem is solved.