H-1B Visa Program - What's the intent?

There seems to be a lot of misrepresentation about the intent of the 'non-immigrant' H1-B visas. They were expected to be used only for hiring, for a short duration, foreigners with specific skill sets when there was no domestic worker available with those skill sets. Over time this has been "enhanced" to a point where the purpose of the visas is unclear. Is an H-1B visa a temporary stop on the way to giving a foreign worker an immigrant visa? If so, why go through this charade?

H-1B Visa Program Again Under Fire - Government IT from eWeek: "A new study by the Economic Policy Institute claims some companies are using the H-1B visa program to transfer work overseas and to take advantage of cheaper guest worker labor.

Despite claims to the contrary, many tech firms are using H-1B visas to fill temporary positions and not as a pathway to permanent citizenship, according to a new study by the Economic Policy Institute."