Well it's Valve saying "We have no management, everything's fair and about getting things done." That isn't how human beings work. They form social structures themselves, whether or not one is given. High school structures are just that, young people forming basic groupings on simple and easily identified traits. When Valve doesn't give an adult business structure, their employees are left to form their own. When people are given a deciding power, even a minor one, it proves to be corrupting. Someone has to be in charge, and someone in charge is going to always be biased. The problem is when that bias affects the bottom line. Whether or not she's an abrasive person, she is leading a team which has a project that the company is putting it's resources into. If you don't give them the proper resources, it's going to fail and be a net loss for EVERYONE. Good leaders do not let the project fail simply because they don't get along with you. Valve is primarily a software company, if they want to diversify into hardware they are going to have to open their mindsets from what they're used to. If you want to work on hardware you need new staff, machinists and hardware engineers. You cannot put software experts on hardware projects and expect results. This issue reminds me, whatever happened to Valve's "console box"? It wasn't even mentioned for E3 or at all this summer, hype died down shortly after this story broke. I think their hardware plans have fallen apart completely, and if so it's due to a juvenile power structure formed by people who don't want to break the current status quo.