While I agree, I also think that overt gating and approval processes create a high tension dynamic that frequently breaks down, whether it's ops v. dev, security v. dev, or others. It's easy for people to get their pride wounded, and they end up encouraged to find workarounds to the process. The simple answers to this are pretty much imaginary, unfortunately.

Sure, of course. I was hoping to point out that there's an increasingly overlooked value in having someone question complexity. The "no, you don't need React" of the frontend dev or the "our data is actually relational" of the back end dev.

If your “SRE” team is only “unblocking deploying a solution” then I’m sad to say they are an operations team who has rebranded themselves to appear more relevant.

That's most "SRE" -- it's a title arms race in that field between the underqualified and those that wish to convey they know how to do more than write system scripts in DSLs