Perhaps I am not making myself clear. I am saying that this situation could have been handled differently regardless of the arbitration system. Teams can pay whatever salary they want whenever they want (the Cardinals did this with DeJong). Assuming the lines of communication were open the Brewers probably would have know what Burnes was looking for. They could have announced they are signing him to a one or two year deal without going to arbitration.
As has been suggested, perhaps they figure Burnes is not in their long term plans due his future market value therefore they don’t care if he is miffed or not. (There are consequences to this approach)
Or as I mentioned above, perhaps the Brewers did not feel comfortable stretching the arbitration offer because it would cause a ripple effect with other teams.
Or maybe both issues are at play. I just don’t accept the suggestion that the team had absolutely no other choice but to do what they did because of the system.