If you don't have management/leadership who cares or fights for you or is in a position to even do so, nothing is going to happen without a major upset in the environment such as what you experienced. These are exceedingly rare.

Simply asking or waiting around for something does absolutely jack shit. I learned that the hard way my last time around during my raise a few months ago. I made it VERY clear through my words and actions that it wasn't acceptable and started accumulating leverage (job hunting) and cutting back hard on all the overachieving I was doing before because I had been pseudo-promised a just reward for doing them. I have word down the pipe this is going to be fixed come mid-year, but I'm not holding my breath. If I get screwed twice, I'll just consider it a lesson learned, sharpen my skills, and start planning my exit with commitment to leave and no leeway for negotiation this time.

Most of the time you have to make things happen for yourself. Nobody is going to just magically make your life better and you don't owe them squat. Employment is an agreement between you and your company for compensation in exchange for work done. Anything extra forfeited by either side is inconsequential to that transaction.

I watched two of my peers leave as a result of poor compensation increases two months ago. They ended up getting massive raises, amazing benefits, and the opportunity to work on far better technologies and projects by leaving for other jobs. They don't went from making 60k a year to 80k a year, just like that. Their raises were both going to be about 3k above their previous salaries, which is below market rate for their roles despite "adjustment" efforts by HR for our whole department. I'm paid even less. Company didn't even try to counter-offer. They were never going to pay them that much and it's only slightly above average for that role.