I feel like how you’re describing it makes it sound more complicated than it is.

All employees are required to make minimum wage.
If your tips don’t take you over minimum wage, your employer has to pay the difference.

So tips given before you get to minimum wage just reduce how much your boss needs to spend to make up the difference. Once you get there, your boss has to pay you at least some very small quantity and the tips increase your take-home

It’s a stupid system and exploitative, but it’s not as “wink wink nudge nudge” as you made it sound.