Ever hear the saying "A prophet isn't welcome in his hometown"? You had blundered into why companies keep Gartner on retainer.
You were an outsider. That has inherent value, even if you and I agree it shouldn't. One of the quirks of humans. You could have probably been a positive force for change, for a while anyway, had you stayed.
I've experienced this - converting from contractor to employee. Stuff talked about and agreed to when I was a contractor is now questioned when an employee. Other outsiders brought in to "validate". Whatever - I just pass the "validators" what I need mgmt to hear, they parrot it, everyone nods their heads and life goes on. Stupid? Yup. Worth fighting? Absolutely not - if you like accomplishing stuff.
This is an excellent observation, thank you!
Also because of the fear the permanent engineers had about speaking up. I assumed that if there was so much fear, there was probably a reason for it, and I honestly expected to be let go. That was the point of my story -- sometimes such fear is not justified.
"The most valuable engineers have strong opinions, weakly held, and shared constructively."
That sounds true to me.
I'm not about to classify myself as a "most valuable engineer" (It's hard to know if I'm being honest or egotistical), but I am a very opinionated person and my opinions are pretty easy to shift with a good, substantiated argument.