Lots of people – even very smart people – like guidance around what expectations are. This can be doubly true in some environments, like certain corporate environments, where the official policy is not in line with what leadership actually wants to see.
As one example, consider the "unlimited vacation" policy and pushback around those. Sure, the official policy is unlimited, but try taking more vacation than your manager wishes you would and see how that affects your next performance review.
> certain corporate environments, where the official policy is not in line with what leadership actually wants to see
Okay. I've not experienced this situation indeed. Official policy / stated expectations has always matched actual expectations perfectly well wherever I worked, to the best of my knowledge. A difference there must be a mess to handle indeed.
As one example, consider the "unlimited vacation" policy and pushback around those. Sure, the official policy is unlimited, but try taking more vacation than your manager wishes you would and see how that affects your next performance review.