You say wasteful, I'd think very efficient. If it's just enough fun to get everyone in an office to engage and use it, a manager now has an accurate tool to check who is where and what they're doing. Plus if it actually makes anyone actually have a little fun with it and have a better day, bonus wins.

There was briefly a thing like this pushed during the pandemic. It was basically zoom, with an avatar that could move around. The key benefit was the chat was local, so you could go to different 'rooms' with people as a kind of ersatz lunchroom conversation.

It was a neat idea for a time when many felt a lack of organic connection.