Apple's Snow Leopard was mainly an under-the-hood redesign and re-architecture with very few features. It's considered by many to be one of if not the best OS they've ever released.
So I understand your point and it's valid, but it's stakeholders are really a force to be managed properly, not capitulated to.
The capitulation, I suspect, comes from the imposter syndrome many managers have, who are just happy to be in that position. They haven't yet grown the spine to do what's best for the project. I don't care how many features an OS has (Windows 8). If it's buggy and unusable, it will be perceived as a bomb.
So I understand your point and it's valid, but it's stakeholders are really a force to be managed properly, not capitulated to.
The capitulation, I suspect, comes from the imposter syndrome many managers have, who are just happy to be in that position. They haven't yet grown the spine to do what's best for the project. I don't care how many features an OS has (Windows 8). If it's buggy and unusable, it will be perceived as a bomb.