It's suffocating to be in a middle management position because you get squeezed by the higher-ups and your own team. If the higher-ups make a decision that your team dislikes or vice versa, you're going to be in the shitter with whichever party suffered every time even if you had the best intentions.
The lesson here is you can trust most big Japanese publishers/developers and it's the opposite for American/European ones. Christ, Death Stranding was almost ruined by all the "subtle" product placements they put
That was a surprisingly good read