People don't realize processes, reviews, standards, and audits are there because of painful (costly) incidents and breakdowns in the past. Changing one line of code in the production app is fast and easy. Crashing the system or screwing up the app logic can cause huge disruption to the operation.

After every single crisis, managers got together and vowed to never let this happen again, and thus processes and reviews are born. After couple years, things will get so stifled to the point of what OP was experiencing.