Well... I imagine we are more in violent agreement than anything else - I might have some quibbles with the notion that ECUs are that simple and, having done a bit of work in that industry in that part of the world, I have some trouble following the notion that 'compliance departments' are so rigorous and independent.

To me, VW's story is at least somewhat plausible because it is not difficult to intentionally and specifically set it up to be that way. I don't have any trouble believing that they deliberately went to great lengths to ensure that and that outside of a small group of crooks (culturally and otherwise encouraged and enabled from above), it was borderline enough that nobody stood up and said 'this is illegal and effed up, I'm going home'.