Putting in a procedure to check compliance before issuing TPs will be cumbersome, and retroactive clawback of points probably wouldn't sit well with BAEC. So maybe they expect the threat to be an effective discouragement

For convenience I stayed the first night of the five booked at my (cheapo) BAH hotel in Istanbul, before heading to a wedding in Izmir. The hotel was totally unaware of the BA connection: the booking had come through a local consolidator, and the manger seemed pretty happy to generate additional revenue from the room, taking on the risk of me reneging on my promise not to return

But the Sofia car rental mess must have been irritating to Avis at OTP and likely generated terse messages to BAH-Towers: I think one of the BA fights is a night arrival meaning cars were held back from last-minute customers and (maybe wishful thinking) staff were kept on late to take care of the (phantom) BA renters.