Agile was introduced as a way for coders to empower themselves, and make changes to the software process for themselves.

But management came in and started mucking it up. They added more bureaucracy, added silly requirements such as mandatory velocity increases every sprint (numbers go up!). And added even more ceremony than was required with things like "Big Room Planning."

At one F500 company we were mandated to do retrospectives at the end of every sprint. The problems hampering the team's development were all external. 50% of the work was coding. The other 50% was chasing signatures, chasing information and requirements from other teams, dealing with security and inter-management politics, while stand-ups became hour long gab fests as coders tried on a daily basis to impress the attending management. We had no control over it the externals, and management didn't give a fuck.

Exactly.

Velocity was supposed to reach an equilibrium and then remain constant. Not over taxing the team is essential. If the meetings are a drag, there's something wrong. If people are burning out, there's something wrong. Those are very old lessons.