> It is by far the most useful skill to have in workplace.

This might be defacto true in most workplaces, but defending "politics over competence" boils down to "I deserve the rewards from other people's work".

People oppose it because it is morally wrong, not because they think it is an inaccurate description of reality.

You say that as if politics is optional. It isn't, decisions need to be made and politics is the process of making those decisions: who decides, and why.

In academia, for example, there is less politics because the publishing system sort of becomes the decision process. You apply with your ideas in the form of papers, the referees decide if your ideas are good enough (and demonstrated well enough) for the wider audience to even get to see. Then some politics, a popularity contest. But crucially this system famously leads to a LOT of resources being wasted, good research that never goes anywhere because nobody cares about it, or bad research that does nothing but everyone cares (cold fusion).

Politics is just a name for how we decide things. And yes, it sucks, but that's because we suck.

It’s not politics over competence. It’s getting things done in the real world