I'm saying the difference between "Build me a house by next week" and "Build me a house large enough for four people with a garage and laundry facilities. If we're missing those things, we won't be competitive."
Especially outside of technical realms, it's nauseatingly common for requests to go under-specified, leading to a bunch of wasted work once everyone circles back and realizes "Oh, forgot to tell you about..."
As a supplier of data analysis and reports to cost cutting/six sigma projects, I have seen it too many times where some project leaders don't go by the 'data first' principle. They pre-decide the direction of the project with no or minimal data and then go about collecting selective data supporting their direction.
I associate this behavior with (impulse) buying. Some like to think they are buyers who base their decisions on rationale rather than feelings, when in reality they buy based on emotion only to rationalize it later.
I agree with some of your points, but aren't the 'details" and 'not micromanaging' statments conflicting in what you say?