[cess11]

I suspect the author has little to no experience running a commercial organisation.

Business outcome comes first, and it is only rarely aligned with technical excellence. Closing a deal might involve making an unreasonable promise, and implementing it might not require more than an ugly hack, so you go with the ugly hack and make the money.

Comfort could be important but many people don't perform well when comfortable, so the organisation has to add some degree of confusion and pressure to keep them at a productive equilibrium where they don't fall into either apathy or burst into flames.

And yes, the boss decides, not because they are especially accountable or responsible, but because the power comes from ownership. In some organisations this is veiled and workers get a say most of the time, but in a pinch it'll be the higher-ups that actually have that power.

[UK-Al05]

Normally when you give an unreasonable promise, or have to implement ugly hack then it is known about and explicit that is what is happening. The problems come when you make a unreasonable promise, but no one knows that.