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I want to compare OKRs to Performance Reviews and Roadmapping. They’re all worthwhile ideas that can bring discipline and structure to the chaotic world of business, all dreaded by their participants for some reason.

It's not mysterious, why those things are hated.

In business, there are innate conflicts of interest. The company wants to suck as much out of people, and pay as little, as it can. You want... something else. Not to be exploited. To have a career. To make more money. Doesn't matter. The company is a paperclip maximizer and you are made of atoms it can use for something else. When you write OKRs, you have to generate information that will only be used against you--never for you. You have to pretend that you're doing this out of some sense of mutuality when, in fact, the situation is inherently adversarial.

You might have a decent manager. Great. That happens sometimes. However, all these devices exist as ways for companies to make managers unable to protect their own people. That's why "Agile" time-tracking exists. That's why there are two management structures (product and people management) for reptilian executives to pit against each other. That's why performance reviews with failure quotas exist. For your boss to be able to protect you from the company is the last thing the company wants.