Company cultures don't feel bureaucratic or political if one benefits from it.
Say one was promoted twice in an year- it's always easy to believe that it happened because you deserved it, than to believe it happened to you because the managers like you.
Even if Red Hat is amazing for you it might not be for other people. No company is immune to human nature.
Again I feel for the author. Sounds like "Greg" was jerk. But it's not cosmic injustice, it's more a feature of humans working in collectives, IMHO.