Comment by coaxial

In my experience, bonuses are also very discretionary and completely opaque. I've seen countless offers touting a sizeable bonus at the entire discretion of the company with no way to know what are the criteria for award. And what do you know, nobody ever got these phantom bonuses because reasons. But it was included in offer letters and used to lower the negotiated salary as of it was a sure thing, and not everyone was savvy enough to push back.