That is just one person, who can leave.

Or be overruled.

or actually do something good. why all the glass half full

Experience. A great deal of computing has trended towards locking out user control. Hopefully this is an exception, but I understand why people are pessimistic.

The trouble is that you can always assume that systems will become closed. If that's true, there's nothing to be hopeful about ever. It may be true in the majority of cases, but you have to give someone a chance at some point.