Every Senior and higher became obsessed with earning teaching kudos from the Kingdom of Mechs.
This was because it was insanely difficult for mech designers to successfully advance to the rank of Master Mech Designer and Star Designer!
The huge disparity in numbers between Seniors, Masters and Star Designers already made that clear.
If mech designers weren't brilliant or clever enough to produce enough results in their regular work activities, then it was definitely worthwhile to spend more time on teaching classes.
This was because if mech designers became stagnant or got stuck in their current research, investing more time and effort into doing the same did not necessarily yield any further results.
The law of diminishing returns hit really hard in these instances.