What I mean by running roughshod is now it's incumbent on an engineer with lesser power to overwrite changes they don't agree with or understand. The chance of them doing that is going to be low unless the change is obviously wrong. One has to appreciate this power disparity on a team of mixed skill levels.
I've been doing this for 26 years at 15 companies and have led several teams. I can think of some where this would be fine (ie. everyone has a healthy amount of EQ), but I can think of several with talented but somewhat thorny, opinionated sr level engineers where this would be a problem. I once had to have a talk with someone on the spectrum who would occasionally do this very thing because it was more expedient than explaining in a PR. The person who complained felt like they were being disrespected.
I've been doing this for 26 years at 15 companies and have led several teams. I can think of some where this would be fine (ie. everyone has a healthy amount of EQ), but I can think of several with talented but somewhat thorny, opinionated sr level engineers where this would be a problem. I once had to have a talk with someone on the spectrum who would occasionally do this very thing because it was more expedient than explaining in a PR. The person who complained felt like they were being disrespected.