Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or to put a positive spin on it, this person was hired to do a job, was good at it, but was prevented from doing so by internal corporate politics. I've worked at companies where meeting major customer deliverables fell through the cracks. The managers simply didn't notice, and didn't care that the software was late and/or non-functional. What is an engineer to do? a) say he knows better, and get called "difficult to…
" The managers simply didn't notice, and didn't care that the software was late and/or non-functional." So then maybe it wasn't important? (I don't know, i'm just suggesting maybe this goal was not as important to the business as you think it was. :P) "let the managers run the company into the ground." Look, if you escalate stuff up your chain, and the answer comes back "no, please do what they are telling you", then…
This was for a small company (The main customer who comprised a good chunk of sales had hard requirements for the software. Both in terms of functionality, and in terms of deadlines.
They came close to being missed because the managers spent their time focussing on "fun" and "pet" projects, for 1/10 of the revenue.
What I find most disturbing about your comments is the implicit assumption that managers know best, and that engineers should shut up. There is no question that incompetent managers exist.
A knee-jerk response of "maybe managers know best" is perhaps best answered by "maybe they don't".