I've had this situation fluctuate at my workplace. When misc changes are supported, and those improvements are actually valued by management, I've seen the system improve dramatically.

I've also seen a single-minded focus on pushing cards across a board, which seems to typically correlate with higher levels of a dogmatic SCRUM process.

Pushing cards is great, but not when it prevents the various little things that have to happen to cultivate quality software. Especially not when there's a gatekeeper prioritizing these things into oblivion.