I agree with all you said but am not optimistic about empowering the committee as a universal fix. Power politics in academic departments were worse than any

I agree with all you said but am not optimistic about empowering the committee as a universal fix. Power politics in academic departments were worse than any I’ve seen in my subsequent career. My committee was firmly under the thumb of my advisor. Any discussions I had with them about the pi being unreasonable were terse at best, and “we’ll talk in the next meeting when everyone is there” at worst.