I’m not sure how you can make the points you make, and still call it a “generally brilliant solution”

The entire point of this system - like anything a giant company like Hertz does - is not to be fair to the customer. The point is to screw the customer over to make money.

Not allowing human employees to challenge the AI decision is very intentional, because it defers your complaint to a later time when you have to phone customer support.

This means you no longer have the persuasion power of being there in person at the time of the assessment, and means you have to muster the time and effort to call customer services - which they are hoping you won’t bother doing - who even if you do call can then easily swerve you over the phone.

This is all part of the game plan.