>>512329040
Though mostly agreeing with your thought process I would add there is a self-interest perspective in which returning carts is done because that's the safest location to prevent the cart from rolling away and hitting some car or person and creating an incident. It becomes a trade off between the risk of a bad interaction like a surprise backing up car, and the risk of leaving the cart by the tree then it rolls and hits a gangbanger's Bugatti or a lawyer''s pet Fufu.