It may have been obvious to some, but not to me. It suddenly dawned on me what the elevator sticks [1] were all about. The puzzle pieces were all there, I just hadn't made the connection.
I am not the target audience for using the elevator stick, nor is the staff the target audience. No, the target audience is the Little People [2], so they can use it to push the elevator button in case they can't reach it.
It's obvious in hindsight.
While I joked about the elevator sticks, it's not something I'm used to seeing. And here they were, just hanging out in elevators with no obvious usage to me, some one who can reach all the buttons. It wasn't until I was sleeping and my subconscience told me an old riddle I heard as a kid: “A man lives in a tall apartment building. On some days, he rides the elevator to his apartment on the 20^th floor. On other days, he rides the elevator to the 18^th floor and walks up two more flights. Why?”
Oh.