I guess the good thing there is that it's absolutely transparent that this is just a way to make you pay somebody else. Like the Jones Act (Merchant Marine Act, but everybody just calls it the Jones Act). The US government doesn't get a slice if you want to buy ships to move stuff from one part of the US to another, but it does require that you buy the ships from an American shipyard, and so those yards needn't be internationally competitive because the US government has their back.
Nobody is like "Oh, the Jones Act ensures high quality ships" because it doesn't, the Jones Act just ensures that you're going to use those US shipyards, no matter what.
Nobody is like "Oh, the Jones Act ensures high quality ships" because it doesn't, the Jones Act just ensures that you're going to use those US shipyards, no matter what.