It sure looks to me like abuse has been taking place. I do not greet with cheer a growth of bureaucracy without end but ignoring the situation is worse.
Yes, there are massive abuses of the H1B program and setting up shell contracting companies to “manufacture” jobs is one of them.
And make no mistake about it - H1B was often a way to bring in cheap foreign labor.
A typical Foreign H1B Visa applicant in the Silicone Valley back in the day was a recent PhD grad from MIT, Berkley, Stanford or Cal Tech who hailed from Taiwan, China, Korea or India who had just received his degree in some hot new hi tech field .
The deal was the foreign applicant would work for around half the pay of similar American citizen and in return the hiring company would sponsor that student for H1B status all the way to permanent resident status on the citizenship track .
The PhD would work like a dog as a hi tech indentured servant for the 3-5 years it took to get a permanent residence visa. At that point the PhD was free apply for other jobs and either was given a huge raise or moved no to higher paying job.
It was win/win for all involved and lots of Presidents and CEOs of hi tech companies started out this way