Who is buying all the bolt-on platform companies?

Caveat I am not a PE professional but an MBB consultant who has seen a fair share of PE portcos and has worked on numerous CDDs / VDDs. 

The bolt-on/platform building always seemed to me like the most cookie-cutter type of thing to do. On paper it looks good and it makes sense that it boosts return for the sponsor, but how does this model work on the larger scheme? 

Do we always assume there will be a bigger fish who has actual appetite for these bolt-on plattforms just to squeeze out some additional add-ons (maybe even cross-border) until it flips hands from small cap, to middle-market, to LC to MF to IPO?

What makes it attractive to buy a (likely) badly integrated bundled together "business" of individual entities?

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