Surprise. Even back then IT was understaffed and overworked and fighting for their fair share. The company has probably has Ransomware and Data Loss problems of various sorts, and the security of the network could be described as 'meh'.

Guaranteed that their job was important hence the 'I don't know how they sold it to the VPs'. They did that because someone in leadership made the right call and you weren't personally in the loop.

The 'bonus' of those IT personnel was probably for retention, because that job is worth a ton more than they were paying. Anyone in that group who was good probably left to the tune of a $50k raise and the company was just trying to keep them happy without the pay bump.

Good job!