Loyal employee is denied PTO request for their birthday, rewards it instead to employee who asked for it verbally because it's 'tradition': 'She had multiple weekends off [...] but my request was denied'

Nobody likes to have their requests denied. Especially if you're already making plans. If you put in the time and effort and demonstrate the ability to plan enough to submit a PTO request before you need it, then those requests should always be honored. It's what PTO is for after all. And in most cases, it's not life or death enough to warrant a big reaction from your employer. We could all do well to let go a little bit more and develop healthier work-life balances. Have none of us seen the TV show "Severance"? That show is all about the dangers of giving yourself over to work. But that doesn't stop some employers from taking every liberty they can. 

They don't care about your request. They're just thinking about the bottom line and what you can do to help them reach that. But you would think that you would want to reward your most loyal employees. Loyalty is hard to find, especially in certain fields. So nobody should be taken for granted. Part of good management is learning how to keep good employees. It's not just about getting everything you can about them from them. It's also about making sure they're happy, so they want to keep working there. The minute that you start neglecting them, they will be right to neglect you in turn. And then you end up in a situation where everybody is losing.