I've experienced this too at a bigco. A well-meaning group of UX people took on the role of conducting all user observation studies. And the studies were high-q

I've experienced this too at a bigco. A well-meaning group of UX people took on the role of conducting all user observation studies. And the studies were high-quality and statistically valid, but it took months to get observations I could have seen directly in minutes. So the recommendations were mostly about things I'd already fixed or changed. It's much better to just talk to users and watch them work. A same-day feedback loop beats any improved study quality.