There may be some truth to this. It has the potential to invite more rats into the ranks but it also staves off attrition longer.

I think the Outfit has taken another approach, which would help to explain their relatively small membership numbers. Over the past 15 years or so, since the late 1990's, there have been several articles that talked about the Outfit intentionally downsizing by consolidating it's crews and streamlining it's operations. As the former Police Chief of Cook County said in one article, "You don't need 250 guys any more. Now you have a few dozen who can get by on gambling." In another article, organized crime expert Howard Abadinsky said, "When you have fantastically lucrative businesses like gambling, in which victims willingly participate and no one's getting beaten up or killed, it draws much less heat from law enforcement - no one's complaining. And when you're not shaking down every bookie or restaurant owner on every street corner, when you're not peddling drugs at the street level, you don't require nearly as many employees. That means each member makes more money. The Outfit is a business and they've learned that having a smaller core is good business."

I think all of the above is true. The only downside is that attrition will take it's toll that much quicker.