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Because it does not look like support. It looks like a friendly message asking for a small change, and a dozen of those a month is a day of somebody's time that was never scoped.
Since the requests arrive in email and the retainer is tracked in a project tool, the two never meet, and the retainer is renewed on the assumption it works.
Requests arrive as tickets against the client rather than as messages to a person, so each has an owner, a clock and a recorded time cost.
Where a request is genuinely project work, it becomes a task in Loop against the retainer or a change request against the sold lines — either way it is counted rather than absorbed.
It will not say no for you. It gives you the number and the record; whether an out-of-scope request gets done anyway is a commercial decision.
And it is not a project tool. Requests that are real work belong in Loop, and Desk hands them there.
Time spent on support against a client sits beside the retainer value in Books, so the margin conversation has both numbers.
The client portal shows requests and their state, which usually reduces the chasing as much as it reduces the surprises.
Products, not integrations. Each one reads the same record, so a join is a permission rather than a sync job with a mapping screen behind it.
Where they are real work, yes — as Loop tasks or change requests against sold lines.
Yes, through the client portal, with state and history.
Yes, beside the retainer value in Books.
Half an hour on your own numbers is usually enough to say whether Desk is the right place to start.