I mean you are entirely discounting that it also allows engineers to pick their tasks and pace them as they see fit, as well as have input into the creation and prioritization of those tasks.
Everytime I hear an engineer complain about this, I ask them if you wish the PM would just write a PRD full of guesswork tasks and you execute on them unquestioningly.
Some engineers complain about having the ability to pick their tasks and have input in prioritization and planning? This has always been the most attractive part of agile for me. Self-organized team. Built around motivated individuals. Striving for technical excellence.
That's cargo scrum, very common disease. Teams without autonomy or self-organization. The queue should consist of higher level tasks, milestones, and the team should rework them into the small tasks that will actually go into sprints. Of course there is a motivation to pick the higher priority tasks first, but team members should be able to pick a task with which they can most efficiently contribute to the sprint goal, it's not always the top one.
Everytime I hear an engineer complain about this, I ask them if you wish the PM would just write a PRD full of guesswork tasks and you execute on them unquestioningly.