It's necessary where the relationship with IT becomes adversarial, often with IT that's less skilled, or more constrained by their management.
Where possible though a mutual beneficial relationship is best.
Where I work I have two laptops. One is my corporate laptop, less powerful but it can connect to our internal network. The other is my dev laptop, more powerful but it can only connect to Internet and our dev network. I can install whatever I need on the dev laptop, as long as I a) keep a running log of installed software and update IT when that changes, b) regularly check NVDB for the software I have installed and apply mitigations as needed, c) keep versions updated to current versions where possible (and never to versions that have known vulns).
If you think you're in a position to change it and you're motivated to do so, go for it, otherwise my experience is that you're better off finding somewhere else to work.
I've seen too many companies set up systems that you cannot be in compliance with but there is no punishment for non-compliance unless they are looking to get rid of you.