This is what happens to Motorola IT.

Some wise exec had the vision to outsource it to an external company and then Motorola (that was already on the path to its death) realized how much was done outside of the process (which is typical for such companies, fortunately or not).

Suddenly your threat of whatever happening if your thing is not fine had exactly zero value against "raise a ticket". Everything crawled to a stop because of that and "golden tickets" were used.

This is one true example of why you should think 20 times before outsourcing something you do not understand.

The author called out that profit centers and cost centers are similar, but different, to the staff vs line distinction being made.

Why equate them as the same here?

Because a significant number of managers seem to fall into the same trap, and it only takes one such manager in the chain above you for it to be painful.