Planned obsolescence?

I took in this Jay Turser Jr. for one of my starving artist friends. He uses it as a loner for his students with small hands. The guitar new can be bought new for as little as $40 but I took it in as a charity job for a good friend.

The bridge had started to pull up and I assumed it had been glued directly to the finish. It took me all of two minutes to remove it cold with a palette knife. The finish had been removed under most of the bridge but there wasn't much glue and it came apart clean. What I saw though looked to a deliberate cut, against the grain direction, from one edge of the bridge through each pin hole to the other edge of where the bridge would just cover. When the bridge pulled up it was still attached to the sound hole side of this cut and had pulled the plywood top like a hinge above this cut. What the #### ?????

These are already such cheapo instruments that won't be around all that long anyway. Disgruntled employee? Planned obsolescence?

I didn't have a camera with me when I pulled it apart but took a picture of the cut the next day after I did a super glue repair to the plywood.

Anyone else run into this kind of intentional sabotage?