Reading this, one might think that this happens only at X or Y company, but in my experience, this is a lot more common.

One example: at a previous job, we spent $1M and almost 1 year to build a (new version of a) process (as in, a website) that served less than 50 customers. The project was launched to great fanfare internally (talks, videos, the whole package) but created no value, even those 50 customers didn't transition to it, as the old one worked fine.

The same job where my manager wrote in my review that I'm too negativist and only point out problems.

I have so many of these stories, some funny, others more tragic - companies going under and people loosing their job and going into depression because a manager was stubborn and incompetent - that I think I should write a book, but then I realise I'm not that special and my stories are pretty boring.