Eeeehhh, might be overestimating executives a bit =P
But yeah, my first instinct is also to tell Gary to fuck off. That said, I would default to a process reason, so, the advice at the end wasn't totally useless for me.
And I'm with you—my default instinct is also to tell Gary to back off using a Process Reason (e.g. 'It's not in the sprint'). It feels safe because it's logical.
The 'Advice at the end' was just trying to highlight why that specific shield often cracks against a VP (because they think they own the process). Glad that specific breakdown was useful to read, even if the scenario felt a bit generous to the exec!
Again, it also depends on who "Gary" is in the real world!