> I don't understand why there is so much disdain for it.

I do. It’s often done by people that become tyrants over their little fiefdom.

That's usually a consequence of bad incentives. Either leadership is selecting for that kind of behavior in managers or they don't know how to properly unselect for it.

If a bunch of crap code gets shipped, it isn't always because the engineers are bad. Often it's because they were given a bad deadline. Same with EMs.