That's not what I mean. I thought I wouldn't need to explain, but as far as everyone knows Kodak is no longer a major player in photography[1]. I wanted to imply that they had a lot of institutional momentum tied up in film, and if they had taken the approach you stated - which you exaggerated as "3 page manual era where every project seems like a kinda reboot of the knowledge when the prior engineers left" - they could have pivoted to the new market (i.e. digital cameras) easily. They were very committed to film, as everyone knows. (I thought this would go without saying.)

So handbooks like this can be seen as a "Kodak moment" of formalizing institutional knowledge. In new markets (which may be the future) there isn't going to be institutional knowledge yet.

Something similar might be the case with extremely serious car manufacturers with many decades of first-rate knowledge in building combustion engine cars.

[1] "January 19, 2012: Kodak filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company's stock was delisted from NYSE and moved to OTC exchange. ... Once the digital camera business is phased out, Kodak said its consumer business will focus on printing. It will seek a company to license its EasyShare digital camera brand."