I too have been around before Agile took off, and I too recall how dysfunctional it was before that. I do, however, attribute the positive development to better tooling: Git (and GitHub) instead of SVN/CVS/Nothing, Cloud computing and containerization rather than dusty-server-in-the-corner-with-curmudgeonly-sysadmin, popularity of safer programming languages rather than dominance of C/C++/early-Java, StackOverflow and full ecosystem of answers to every question you might have, etc.
In general, my experience has been that the most wildly successful projects I have worked on tended to involve the least amount of stress, most amount of personal/professional development, and best relationship with peers. The least successful ones tend to be stressful, frustrating, and destructive. The common denominator is that the most successful ones rely on experience, intuition, and professionalism of your staff, the least successful ones submit to tyranny of agile - and when agile isn't delivering success, to double down on it and all those awful "issues".
In general, my experience has been that the most wildly successful projects I have worked on tended to involve the least amount of stress, most amount of personal/professional development, and best relationship with peers. The least successful ones tend to be stressful, frustrating, and destructive. The common denominator is that the most successful ones rely on experience, intuition, and professionalism of your staff, the least successful ones submit to tyranny of agile - and when agile isn't delivering success, to double down on it and all those awful "issues".