>Every company talks about wanting to have driven curious employees to solve complex issues or challenges but you just get stomped with a boot to your face if you do anything outside your lane or simply ask why.

That's because "curiosity" translates to "more work" at #BigCo. And people work at #BigCo so that they can comfortably do as little work as necessary to maintain their lifestyles. This is a hard rule for any organization. So if you want what you're describing, it will only be found at small startups where everyone has skin in the game.