This happens a lot in all domains I'm sure. In software, it's a pretty good test of whether someone is mid or not. It crops up as over focus on a tool or process or practice xyz when what really matters is writing code that works well and is easy to understand. The biggest tragedy is engineers that aren't mid end up behaving like mids because they work at large co's staffed with mids. Many xyz's in software exist to deal with mids.