My experience is different, but I go through my employer which is large enough of a client that we do bypass the rental counter and have our own stand out at the lots. Also I rent enough from a few locations that I'm on a first name basis with some of them. I rent ICARs and have had maybe 2 ICARs this year out of 30 rentals. Even without my employer and outside of our state, I still get treated fairly well, but maybe having 30 rentals a year helps, or maybe I have some notes in my file?
That said, enterprise's rewards program is garbage tier. Hertz is a million times better.
The large number of locations is likely why we use them though, being able to get a rental car, or a rental car replaced, in BFE, is pretty important for us.

I will say that looking over the car is a good thing. I've had them find stuff I'd otherwise miss, though my employer apparently just does all the waivers (for a grant total of $33/day including the car) so it doesn't really matter for us.