I think it would probably be more accurate to say that the banks are on a mission to keep as many payments coming in as possible. Their problem is that they have reserve requirements that prevent them from extending credit based solely on the borrowers’ ability to pay. That’s where collateral comes in.
To the extent that they can avoid getting appraisals most of them probably will do so because its expensive. They have been using Broker Price Opinions and Automated Valuation Models instead of appraisals because they’re a lot cheaper, so I imagine they’ll continue to do that as long as they can before those alternate valuation products pass the point of creating more problems than they solve.
After a certain point, there’s no way a lender is going to be able to rationalize writing a new loan that vastly exceeds the value of the property being used as collateral.