Women, studies have shown, do not want the money, for money's sake, nor do they want the money to feed the child, they want to punish the man. It is part of female psychology.
I know, I've seen it happen in a way which was mathematically provable (legal costs in trying to "gain" something extra, would negate the extra gains even if these were awarded by the judge) but the question is why would the state assist in this irrational behavior? I mean this happens even in states/countries where the cases are sorted in normal courts with normal judges.
The only answer I came up with is that the judges are too disconnected from the average man due to their much higher wages - so when they are awarding hundreds or thousands of $$$, it's like they are awarding peanuts... it's the same to them, in a sense. They might also think they are doing "good" for the kid, non-factoring how the money are not really going for the kid.