Usually the cause that requires high sampling is vibration. But that can be condensed with FFT stuff easily.
Honestly from working in plastics and sensor design for 15 years it usually boils down to engineers not willing to let go of information because they envisage potential future issues. Its easier to imagine problems in a meeting than to imagine and deliver solutions upfront before the problem ever happens. Also, a lack of care for the economics of doing such sampling.
That's not to say there is an easy fix. These same people are the ultimate end customer who have the final word on such engineering environments.
