I don't disagree with the description "process theater", but its a common part of the overhead of enterprise contracting (often as a result of the demands of the customer, and often central to the compensation structure), and even a bigger part of the overhead of enterprise contracting that involves subcontracting.

"Securing revenue through enterprise development contracts" is a different discipline than "software development", and optimizing an organization to perform on the former can involve compromising on the latter. (The entities that understand software development well enough to align incentives of contractors well with effective delivery of value are usually the ones that don't need to contract development out in the first place.)

This is hardly limited to IBM or software development. Almost any business that relies on human to human "sales" is at risk of devolving in to a deceptive mess of complexity things that have nothing to do with delivering the desired product or service. That is dangerous because eventually competitors will be lapping you at a tiny fraction of the price.