Our relatively small skunkworks team developed apps that changed the end-to-end solution delivery processes for major business units, both consumer and business sectors, saved the company 8 digits in opex and capex each year, and won an international award for "Best Support Team" (the Stevies, sort of known as the Oscars of the business world). Our greatest feat that year that enabled us to win the award was keeping the company afloat during a four-month union labour dispute by improvising solutions that automated everything in sight. At the end of the labour dispute, the CEO send a company-wide email about how important we were, awarded us this made-up award "Holding the Fort". When the union came back to work, we trained them how to use the new tools, but we unfortunately were also enablers of heavy downsizing, which I always disliked. Some of these people were hardworking people who did nothing wrong and followed the rules. Many of them were elderly and had little chance to go back to school to get new skills (we're talking 50-year-old clerical workers, etc). It drastically changed how I thought about corporate software work. That being said, we were all young cowboys, and it was possibly the best team I've ever experienced in my life.
I experienced the absolute opposite in many ways when I worked overseas for IBM, managing projects that spanned the Asia Pacific. I was the go-to PM many of their mission-critical infrastructure projects, including helping with datacenter migration from Japan to Australia, necessitated by the 2011 Fukushima earthquake and tsunami. I also experienced a middle ground as a venue technology manager for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. Lots of pressure and set processes, but a lot of extremely competent people too.
Look, I'm not doubting your experience, but I've had mine too, which shaped my views, just as I'm sure that your experiences have shaped yours. We can agree to disagree, nothing wrong with that.