Ah, no.
RIRs say that their blocks are not guaranteed to be routable because they
have no control over the filter policies of ISPs. They could issue a block
that someone (say, someone transit-free) decides to filter. This assertion
that they make is a wise protection. In practice, the vast majority of
ISPs use RIR allocation guidelines as starting point for filter policies,
so that they don't break the internet too badly.
You are correct that there is no direct link between announcement and
issuance. However, I can only hope that ARIN would look very closely at
issueing space to an enterprise or SP that had no intention of routing it.
I suspect that justifying further space would be difficult.
Perhaps you can provide an example of a recent allocation for this
purpose, along with some proof that ARIN or RIPE realized that the
provider had no intention of routing the block? If this is the case, many
folks on this list would be very interested in changing this policy, I'm
guessing.
- Dan