I've seen some of that in banking, where retail banks will have things like 15 levels of sign off (ok I jest but it feels like it) before any new release, becau

I've seen some of that in banking, where retail banks will have things like 15 levels of sign off (ok I jest but it feels like it) before any new release, because the financial bodies that govern them require there to be a set of compelling reasons and a huge doc-trail before anything happens. But some banks (Starling in the UK) seemed to be able to work around that and have a decent CI/CD story, and as you say - it doesn't usually make the software any better, just adds bureaucracy.