>>"All of our deferred maintenance issues, some dating back over a decade, were addressed in the first 6 months of being freed of the managers"

Right... So how many business goals got accomplished?

The techie in me hundred percent empathizes with you. I want a Clean system based on best practices and modern technology stack.

It took me a long time to understand that my technical OCD is irrelevant from business goals perspective. I don't know your full story but as presented, there's a possibility that while you enjoyed six months without management, business suffered for it. Or not - don't know the details. But it's important to understand that my techie perspective of what's important to accomplish, and business perspective, may differ. Management's job (amongst others) is to enact company strategy and prioritize business goals.

To wit, a business may be more successful with certain percentage of outstanding maintenance issues (his ibportant was that decade old issue really?? :) while having important new features built.