Mike, most of the time when this happens I get the feeling that it’s about people at the top (who aren’t directly involved) not wanting to relinquish control, either because they need to cover their backs, worry about money, or answer to someone else higher up who knows even less about the project. The problem is that so many things are set up this way. Smaller organisations have a lot more flexibility in the way they run things, which is why sometimes you can have a person-to-person conversation instead of raising a ticket. Too bad it doesn’t always work that way, but big projects = big money = big chances to go wrong = impersonal, inflexible juggernaut.