> I haven't seen that communication style very often in engineering managers.
It might depend on whether "engineering manager" means "an engineer who has risen to management" or "a manager who happens to manage engineers even though they have no engineering experience themselves". The communication style I described is indeed very rare in my experience for the first type of engineering manager. But in my experience it isn't for the second. It's not clear from the OP's account which type their manager's boss is (or their manager, for that matter).
It might depend on whether "engineering manager" means "an engineer who has risen to management" or "a manager who happens to manage engineers even though they have no engineering experience themselves". The communication style I described is indeed very rare in my experience for the first type of engineering manager. But in my experience it isn't for the second. It's not clear from the OP's account which type their manager's boss is (or their manager, for that matter).