It looks to me like the same argument for trying to change groups from within: you need to be part of the machine to raise to a position where you can make it move the way you want.

There is surely a lot of possible shades of that, but clearly there are domains where it's not a viable approach. We've seen for instance that changing the police culture from within seems like a dead end. Arguably I wouldn't be sure defense is more open to change.

Sometimes external pressure has a better chance to bring change, and working from the outside to have an impact on that could be as effective depending on the field.