Because, LATC, with 3 days left in the reset, and needing to use over 400-500m dollars (in terms of the cost of jets lost during the PS and the oil cost) to PS, the land gained isn't going to even make back even 1/2 of that 500m dollars spent.

The 500m doesn't even include construction costs (which would be another 1b-1.2b if you build), and another 50+ turns to build them during which you could CASH instead for an additional maybe 400m dollars (at maybe +8m per turn). If you choose to leave the 5k empty acres empty, the ~2k buildings gained isn't even going to make back 200m over the last 3 days of the reset.

Plus, when you gained 8k land, your tech levels probably fell by 2% (say from 177 to 175%), that is a 2.3% loss of income unless you spend another 150m dollars to buy more tech.

In other words, it is a networth loss for you to initiate the grab, and your grab wasn't a move that maximizes your final rank. That is why it is a fluff move; landgrabs ceased being a "networth maximizing move" about 5-6 days ago (and that's only if you grab countries of the same strategy, it would be about 7-8 days ago if it's different strategy).


Note: Edited to add some napkin math numbers.