"What did you accomplish during your time with X research group?"
"Nothing since all our equipment broke, but we documented how it was all IT's fault. You shoulda seen the looks on their faces when we called them out on it to the dean!"
It seems weird to dump on IT when they’re a department responding to the incentive structure they’re placed under like everyone else. You going to the Dean/someone with actual authority to get top down approval for IT to give you what you want is basically how IT operates in large orgs. I have nigh infinite technical power but in return I am bound politically by polities that I’m explicitly not allowed to have any authority over (i.e. I can’t approve my own policy exceptions). I want to give you literally anything you ask for. As long as my ass is covered it literally doesn’t matter at all to me. When I worked Uni IT if someone wanted something we couldn’t give them because $dumb_reason weren’t in a position to have that fight with the higher-ups on their behalf. It doesn’t mean much coming from us and since it’s not impacting our work it falls on deaf ears.
From your tone you make it seem like you were proud to waste everyone’s time and money when one single meeting with the Dean and the CIO/Director of IT when the problem happened would have opened every door for you.
The parent comment was literally suggesting that GP should have allowed the equipment to fail so that IT could be blamed. I didn't get the impression GP's situation was the result of not bothering to sit down and talk to a higher-up.
Everyone else is responding to incentive structures too, it's no less legitimate for lab workers to circumvent IT due to their incentives than it is for IT workers to be unhelpful due it their incentives.
"Nothing since all our equipment broke, but we documented how it was all IT's fault. You shoulda seen the looks on their faces when we called them out on it to the dean!"