It's one thing I've noticed on some things I've worked on. I would have or be given a project, and I would have a really nice proof of concept. I would present it to the supervisor and they would take it as the main talking point to see for any interested parties, even though you know it's nothing notable or significant and very rough on design.
They give it the "look what this project can do!" speech to the higher ups, and when I caught on to that I always wonder when I'm at a conference if any of these selling points were just a quick proof they took and ran to drum up more money.