As I think about it, it might not even matter much what the answer is - outside of personal preference, of course. Clear decision-makers can be good. Having a lot of autonomy can be good. Not being sure if you're allowed to do X or not, or even who to ask about it, never is.
I disagree with some nuance, but generally agree.
For large, multi-geography firms, I want to know and work WHERE the central pockets of power are located.
The company was in the business of buying up smaller companies, and naturally every manager wanted to stay a manager. So there was like 8 layers of management.
If we asked for money, time or resources we would take guesses as to how far up the chain it would get before it got rejected.
And it SO often got rejected, because a random manager was feeling less important and wanted to assert their power they used to have.