Sadly, due to the lack of formal tertiary education, most of our dfos become pushovers at meetings of divisional heads. Most divisional heads had tertiary and post-graduate training whereby they were trained in negotiations ( conning, lying without batting an eye, arm twisting, etc ), legal wrangling, psychology, industrial relations and politics. Pilot dfos were sadly lacking in such skills ( notwithstanding the laughable MBAs or MARA type diplomas/degrees that some acquired ) and at crucial meetings, the other divisional head had them for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
What an astute and succinctly insightful piece of observation!
That's why the other divisional heads like the dfos to be, clueless and yellow bellied so that they can ride roughshod over flight operations.