One rational reason is that there's a desire to preserve the state of the economy to speed the eventual recovery. Writing checks to a restaurant to keep its staff employed (but idle) vs. writing checks to the employees is the same from the perspective of the employees. But it also means the restaurant is going to fail.

Opening the doors of an idle restaurant at the end of the lockdown is a lot cheaper and more efficient than starting up an entirely new one.

A less rational reason, of course, is that the policymakers writing the bailout laws tend personally to be more affiliated with and sympathetic to business owners than employees. There is some of that too.