Adopting a DevOps culture is usually very difficult at sales-driven orgs, most of which fallaciously call themselves product-driven orgs. Mostly because PMs see it as a cost rather than an investment, and their sole goal is for devs to ship an incremental ball of crap.
The only times I've seen DevOps succeed was when it was supported by very senior engineers who were allowed to ignore product people's antics and implement it anyway, and when engineers keen on DevOps inflated their estimates to make room for that kind of work, particularly the initial research and yak shaving.
Imo, DevOps isn't in great health because the industry isn't in great health, and most non wealthy tech companies are doing panic-driven and FOMO-driven development.
Indeed the culture you describe does not sound healthy! In theory, Engineering does not report to Product, it is a partner with an important perspective, and can negotiate prioritizing certain projects without subterfuge.
In low trust environments, all engineering-led projects that Product/"the business" don't understand are assumed to be low value. Sometimes this is unfair, but sometimes it is warranted. Poor engineering leadership will green light all sorts of counterproductive "silver bullet" projects.
The only times I've seen DevOps succeed was when it was supported by very senior engineers who were allowed to ignore product people's antics and implement it anyway, and when engineers keen on DevOps inflated their estimates to make room for that kind of work, particularly the initial research and yak shaving.
Imo, DevOps isn't in great health because the industry isn't in great health, and most non wealthy tech companies are doing panic-driven and FOMO-driven development.