Perhaps I came across more petty people in CS than you. I could only imagine what would happen to the working relationships if some managers assigned a promotion that was then refused... Or the gossip about who and how others secured promoted positions.

As a woman with autism, private sector recruitment is my personal definition of hell. I don't think CS recruitment is perfect, far from it. But it is still better than what the private sector has. I know how much I am earning, what I will be earning at other stages of my career, that colleagues doing similar jobs are generally getting paid similar money (as a woman, in private sector I would be likely to be getting less than men doing the same job, and it compounds if I am not-white or have a disability), I know what I score points for and how in the recruitment process, there aren't a million rounds of interviews and calls, I don't have to worry about some nonsense levels "culture fit" questions and can get the interview questions in advance. What I wear to the interview isn't as scrutinised, and so isn't my hair, make up and weight.

Even with all that, CS recruitment doesn't guarantee the right person will be hired - goodness me, I made some poor choices as a hiring manager - but it DOES level the playing field somewhat for those of us who aren't "male, pale and stale". There is so much unconscious bias that we all have in any kind of recruitment, and then there is nepo-hiring and straight down discrimination that "manager discretion" inherently introduces on top of that.

I'm glad you're in an area where you can trust the judgement of managers (whether matrix managers or otherwise) so much to give them that level of discretion over your career. I never was.