You are describing cargo-cult scrum, or consulting-driven scrum. At this point, I think scrum is a lost cause, because, at best, people go through the motions,

You are describing cargo-cult scrum, or consulting-driven scrum. At this point, I think scrum is a lost cause, because, at best, people go through the motions, but more likely, managers use it for the opposite of its intended purpose. I did my first scrum training with Ken Schwaber. Ten years later I did it again with a "Scrum Consultant". Same "processes", but utterly different reasons, utterly different outcomes. And there's no hope for it. Managers can't be convinced by me that Ken Schwaber didn't mean whatever bullshit their high-priced consultant is saying. Even without the consultant, there are far too many ambiguous things, that Ken gets into specifically, that don't come across when discussing Scrum. Scrum will result in the manager doing none of their responsibilities (e.g. proper planning), while micromanaging the engineers. If I ever start another company, we will do Scrum. But otherwise, I won't go near it.