I get the sense that the reality is somewhere in between. It's definitely not everywhere, but I do see a significant amount of philosophy and meta-work happeni

I get the sense that the reality is somewhere in between. It's definitely not everywhere, but I do see a significant amount of philosophy and meta-work happening in technology (and possibly other industries). People like to present their ideas of what makes a workplace "better" or what makes people work harder or stay happier, and many times they forget the simplicity and professionalism that has been working in workplaces for a long time now—simply treating people professionally! I'll be honest, I'm on my first job out of college, and in the finance industry there's very little philosophy and novelty (mostly dinosaurs), but even I have seen, here and there, redefinitions of terms, like "they're not customers, they're guests" or "he's not an employee, he's a teammate" and, well, I'm not too impressed even with this simple stuff. I'd imagine a good amount of places take it too far.