I recently read a book about the design of the LIM. It amazes me how young many of the people were. The guy in charge of the LIM design, IIRC, was late 20’s. Just a little older than the guy in this article.
He was 40 when Apollo 11 landed on the moon.
There's an episode of "From the Earth to the Moon" called "Spider" that focuses on Thomas Kelly. Highly recommended.
There is a scene depicting the Saturn launch but from inside the LM. Poetic.
Looks like it is about 39 minutes in: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x447gmx
Maybe not so different from startups today?
Also, bureaucratic BS usually melts when faced with pressure from above. (Though then you might have things like the Challenger disaster)