I am sorry... I am at a loss for words...
If you knew, you would probably take down this post and replace it with fire and brimstone. You are coming at this from the point of a rational person who has some faith in the justice system. Both are misplaced.
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. When the woman decides to leave the man (provider) it is because she literally hates his guts. She put up with someone while thinking she could have done better (if only he was like that hunk she had in the foam cannon at Cankun.) and so resents her position more and more until she literally thinks of him as evil. (Women have to control these instincts, just like men have to control the instincts prompted by the little head)
So, the woman is out for blood. And she will use whatever tool the state gives her to extract as much as she can.
The family court is not. It is neither for families, nor is it really a court.
What you think of as a judge, may just be a lawyer making some extra money. No, really, it is not a court, and it has no obligation to have a real judge.
Furthermore, the "judge" gets paid a portion of the moneys collected. So, the judge will want as much money as possible transferred between parties. Which usually means from the man to the woman. The "judge" can even go so far as saying to the man, that you aren't living up to your full potential, you can get a better job, and so we are going to use the amount made from a better job as the number from which we will calculate the amount owed.
And then, the child custody... Sorry, I can't get into it without spraying blood all over the screen.
BTW, because of the "dead beat dad" laws, she can have the man thrown in jail whenever he misses a payment, EVEN IF IT WAS HER FAULT, or the court's fault.
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.