Perhaps it's just word definitions you and the author are disagreeing on.
Making the organization more efficient is a big win, we can probably all agree. Making the people more efficient through improved systems is a big win, we can probably all agree. Letting the people who perform the process figure out how to make it better is a vitally important part of that, though, as you point out.
But making tools and systems improvement a priority doesn't necessarily mean that we're going to elevate the systems to the point that they become sacred cows even when they get in the way of getting things done.
Making the organization more efficient is a big win, we can probably all agree. Making the people more efficient through improved systems is a big win, we can probably all agree. Letting the people who perform the process figure out how to make it better is a vitally important part of that, though, as you point out.
But making tools and systems improvement a priority doesn't necessarily mean that we're going to elevate the systems to the point that they become sacred cows even when they get in the way of getting things done.