The reddit explanation in the post addresses your question I believe. If someone is at a 28 or 29 a few "charity" points can be found in subjectively-graded tests.
replyI think that really just reflects the fact that on subjectively graded tests the score really doesn’t have that many significant figures of accuracy. That a regrading can find 3 to 5 points by being more generous - or presumably take 3 to 5 off by being harsher - says that really you could save a lot of effort by treating the final grades as bucketing into 10 point bands and treating 25-35 as the actual cutoff.
replyIsn't that equivalent to just setting the passing threshold to 25, with the same incentives?
replyIf you grade individual questions, you don't know the total score.
replyThe incentive to find the extra point would partially disappear.
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