This isn't about fixing a bug, but about working for the customer when the organization can't. For theoretical background on why companies grow in this manner,

This isn't about fixing a bug, but about working for the customer when the organization can't. For theoretical background on why companies grow in this manner, read the transaction cost economics literature on bureaucratic cost. That's what drove the auto industry to abandon the hierarchy for the M-form, with some internal contracting replacing hierarchy. It's why US companies are relatively flat. In this case, everyone actually wanted the bug fixed. Problems really arise when some do and some don't, and when it's in the customer's interest but not the company's. The solution here is not to fix the bug but fix the problem with test infrastructure. It's causing a whole class of hard-to-reproduce bugs to be ignored. In a bureaucracy, the bug will get fixed but the problem will persist. In a healthy company, middle management will work together to fix the problem.