This. As an IC my goals are pointless if they don't align with stuff that is already/is going to be funded. Say I make a goal of learning a different piece of the codebase that I find particularly interesting. Well there better be a bug or new feature involving that code for me to get started on, and it better be funded to a level such that I can take extra time to learn, because it was originally budgeted for the relevant SME, who's toes I'll probably have to gently step on just to get access to the work, let alone pass code review.

Needless to say that rarely happens, and even when it does there are often no available followup assignments in the same area to reinforce the knowledge, so you move on to something else and forget 80% of what you learned.