Applause is encouragement to continue the “good work”.
I understand the notion, but prefer to hold a skeptical position and wait until the job is completed to say “well done.” It gives me flashbacks to see conservatives losing their minds in applause the same way they do whenever liberal bill maher says something against the orthodoxy, as though he has actually joined the team when the opposite is always true. To a plumber repiping my home, I don’t cheer after every section of pipe he sets in place; the payment comes at the en of the project.