Earlier quoted context omitted.
I say this as an engineering director and someone who takes a lot of pride in my ability to do all the good things you describe: what's wrong with it is that bad management is hard to dislodge. Bad managers will never admit they're bad; they have bad employees. It's really hard for upper management to tell the difference. The early signs of bad management look a lot like bad employee performance. It takes time for a…
I have never seen a "bad" manager exist under a "good" manager/director. Every single "bad" manager was able to survive and thrive because the environment was set up to encourage and reward the "bad" behavior. If you are hiring and managing bad people, then the problem is not with them. It is with you. If you are unable to identify bad people under you, then you are failing at your most basic responsibility.
Personally, I've seen bad managers under good directors. It's complicated. Anyone can make a bad hiring decision. My point is that even if you are able to identity bad people under you, that identification process takes time. The higher you go in a hierarchy, the longer the time horizon you tend to be evaluated on. To say it should be obvious on a very short time horizon is disingenuous and only covers the most egregious cases.