If I understand the bug report comments correctly, they didn't close the trees to other code changes to prioritize fixing this, they did it because the cert expiry broke some important tests at the same time as it broke every end user's browser.
Re:Update Regarding Add-Ons in Firefox
by JamesMcGill on Saturday May 04, 2019 @12:25PM
(#19827401)
This is one of the things about this whole episode that I find baffling. Stuff like adjusting bug priorities and arranging for someone to tweet an announcement is the work of a good engineering manager. This is the right person to run interference and handle comms and deal with things outside of the critical path, like bugzilla updates.
The priority field just plays no practical role here since the bug was immediately escalated.
If people can see it externally it definitely has an effect, "oh moz aren't taking this browser breaking bug seriously". Which is probably why the parent said it's a management issue rather than a directly technical one, per se.
Stuff like adjusting bug priorities and arranging for someone to tweet an announcement is the work of a good engineering manager
So we can come to the obvious conclusion about Mozilla, then? No good "engineering" managers? Miss one reprioritization and you're out! This is what sane people think?
At no stage did the parent post state there are no good engineering managers at Mozilla. They just said that adjusting bug priorities is the work of a good engineering manager. There's a world of difference.
If you want to complain about knee-jerk overreactions, I think you might want to look in the mirror first.
I would assume the delay in assigning P1 is really just a result of assigning P1 not being as high priority as fixing the damn problem.