Toilet doors

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I just read a post by @AJ1952Chats about toilets and the doors (or lack of them) on stalls, and that reminded me of something I have been wondering about for years. Some years ago I spent 3 years working in the USA and I was surprised to find that in public buildings such as museums, hospitals etc., where there was a multi-user toilet/restroom, the individual stalls had doors but the doors always had big gaps around them (a couple of inches), so that you could clearly see between the door and the frame. At my workplace as I walked into the toilet/restroom, I would often see one of my colleagues sitting on the toilet, although of course the door was securely closed. I found this very strange, as the presence of the door at all seemed pointless, and I was rather glad that my boss was a man and therefore I wouldn’t risk walking in and seeing him sitting on the ‘throne’. I thought perhaps it was to discourage activities such as drug taking, but when I asked people about it they had no idea. I took to walking a bit further to use a one-person toilet! Are there any American users out there who can shed light on this situation?