Right, but then you just supported my position: that mastering out is more likely to hurt you than help you. You claimed it would be the better route than just starting and finished a Master’s alone and I was rebutting that.
Of course there are questions about the circumstances. Faculty have to plan students and projects years in advance, and if they hire a student and he or she bails after two, it’s tough to recover. So naturally, when admitting students, an important consideration is whether they’re likely to finish what they start.