I agree with you and hope that the powers that be do, too. I've never heard of a "firm level" roundup - maybe IRUA just made it up! LOL. They claim they've got someone with "30 years of experience" making this decision. We shall see...
Part of the problem is some lawyer somewhere, which the IR guy thinks is such an expert; and the TA is the other part of the problem. They say the DTC sent " a wire to all broker/dealers" advising them to notify DTC re how many shares they need for beneficial accounts, and they were supposed to do that by the record date to qualify. Buncha baloney...