> However for those who are superstar / plan maker, this discussion is actually beneficial. ...

I hear all this and it seem useful also. But from what I have seen in last 5-8 years is that immediate supervisor/manager have hardly any power or resources to anything meaningful for employees beyond filling basic HR templates that go nowhere.

This could be different for very early career employees or startups where one's manager could be just the founder or CTO and the like. But for mid career and above employees in typical established business, managers seem merely human timesheet for work done. They have full mandate to get work done creatively , enforce corporate policies from up top but little in term of listening/approving any of their employee's considerations.