Facebooks building 8 was run by a former darpa chief and went up in smoke. Also anecdata but it was enough to make me question how good their process really is
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regina_E._Dugan#Potential_conf...
I don't think a single person that no longer works there can represent the entire process of an agency.
If anything, Facebook's building 8, only reflects badly on her and Facebook.
Up to the PM. DARPA is definitely more heavy-handed than other funding orgs, for whom annual reports are pretty common. But monthly check-ins is on the extreme end of things even for DARPA. Quarterly/six month are more common. Never heard of weekly, and I doubt many PIs would put up with that for very long.