> Most of this complexity has no clear business purpose (bureaucracy)
Bureaucracy has a very clear purpose. In business, politics, or otherwise.
Bureaucracy makes change difficult and slow.
Bureaucracy should be applied when you have a working solution to your problems and you don't want anyone (new devs, new managers, external forces) to change it.
Bureaucracy is often prematurely applied, in an attempt to "bring order." This cannot work. Bureaucracy applied to chaos cements the chaos into place.
Bureaucracy is organization. If you build something complex, you need a lot of humans to do it. But the humans need organizing principles, common goals, divisions of labor and leadership.
To not understand that, and like some of the comments above to place technical work of an IC above that is ridiculous folly. Skyscrapers and bridges and big complex things like software requires human organizational structures which we view as 'bureaucracy'.
Yes! Bureaucracy is helpfull. Sometime, bureaucracy prevents more bureaucracy. The issue is that it is hard to understand how or why it was set up, and to differentiate bad bureaucracy from good bureaucracy. Both look the same and feel the same. Both can be simplified. Only, when you simplify bad bureaucracy, you can get whatever. If you simplify good bureaucracy, you will definitely end up worse, at least for a time.
Sure, not all bureaucracy is misused, it can have a good function in governance. But it absolutely can be used to extend and protect power as well. It is a tool, plain and simple.
Bureaucracy has a very clear purpose. In business, politics, or otherwise.
Bureaucracy makes change difficult and slow.
Bureaucracy should be applied when you have a working solution to your problems and you don't want anyone (new devs, new managers, external forces) to change it.
Bureaucracy is often prematurely applied, in an attempt to "bring order." This cannot work. Bureaucracy applied to chaos cements the chaos into place.