"You don't take a Hawk or their contract to the auction block lightly either." You don't do it period- but it's done and for the most part it's somewhat accepted. The practice exists and he can't stop it, can't really condone it and can't spit on it because he'd gotten Locus there after all, hadn't he?

One good trade out of how many awful doesn't make it a decent practice.

"What were you trying to do, then?"