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Oh right.
I never assumed it was for personal gain, more because when you're spending someone else's money it's easy to get a bit
hugo7
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In my limited experience of working with an architect (once, and he's an old friend), he has explained that it is his job to look at as many options as possible as often the client will not be considering something or has internally vetoed something right out of the gate because of a fear of additional/ridiculous cost. Part of the architect's job is also to make sure that the client doesn't cut their nose off to spite their face and miss out on something that could add a great deal of value for "not as much as expected" cost. He has been absolutely fantastic in that regard when planning our extension. I would have been paralysed for fear of making the wrong/expensive choices and ended up with a shit design that met none of our needs if he hadn't suggested half of the stuff we are likely to end up with. But if they aren't then also explaining that value, then they are not doing a good enough job.
stevo_com
The integrity thing - more about the stereotype that architects always aim to increase contract costs when on a % fee for financial gain.