It is in fact often intentional. It’s basically the same business model as printers. They make money from the refills, not the machine. Obviously people want to save money with generic paper, so they make sure the dispenser only works right with their paper.
What the dispenser manufacturer doesn’t consider is that whoever orders the paper doesn’t use the dispenser, so they don’t give a shit whether the dispenser works well or not. In fact, it not dispensing well saves even more money on paper!
Remember the one with the rotating cloth towel thing? Imagine how much filth they contained.
But they are the most environmentally friendly. Once the whole spool is used you just swap in a different one and wash the used one and can reuse it
The brown paper ones with the big pull down lever that gives you one sheet per pull are great. Everyone should do that.
How about a blow dryer that actually gives you more bacteria than you had before you washed your hands
