I guess actually delivering work according to specifications and making both stakeholders and customer's lives easier is never gonna be good enough for the peanut gallery.

And it's not about having "decision power", whatever that means. I was there to collaborate, listen, document, communicate down and deliver. And I did. I got my raise, my team got raises, projects were completed, management was happy, customers are using it to this day.

I wanted to be in control of my career and my output like the article describes. For nine months, I was.

Everything else is bullshit rationalization.