Earlier quoted context omitted.
> This is why specifications are important, and why design is important. Also the phrase "know your audience". No sense in casting pearls before the swine.
Though sometimes the higher ups might not be the same as (or understand) the actual audience. In this case the higher ups may have been confused due to, say, looking at the app while indoors (and from the perspective of "let's judge this developer's work"), while the actual users would see it in a vehicle alongside the real sky (and from the perspective of "let's see how easy this is to match up with reality").
But when it's embedded software on physical devices where the business will have to incur cost in order to ship and hit those users, I can absolutely see why management would do the same thing as what all of the competitors are doing.