Precisely. I had HR literally acknowledge that my manager had objectively done NONE of the things they pledged to do, and that I had done EACH of them...
... and that they were standing by the manager's decision.
(I didn't expect any different, to be honest. I'm not that naive. But it was straight up acknowledged that the manager had been dishonest with both me, and HR, but because of their larger investment in him, that was the way they were going to go.)
I think by the time any complaint goes to HR the decisions have generally been made, or at least nearly so. HR is (I think) largely there to gather information they can use for disciplinary action and/or termination.
