poorjohn:
watching the slide from personal responsibility to crowded meeting rooms deciding minor details,
Lots of that at Boeing (other large corporations too).
The culture there is to smack down anything that doesn't fit into the team philosophy. One would seriously risk their career by going off an testing their own hypothesis without consensus from the crowd. Its better to fit in than go off on one's own than to pursue some avenue of investigation, even if it had a reasonable probability of succeeding.
I'd suspect that Boeing has a Plan A/Plan B strategy in place. First, take a certain amount of time and resources to investigate the LiON technology and find a fix. Failing that, fall back to an already certified off the shelf battery system (probably NiCad). So now Plan A proceeds, but with everyone having an investment in the team plan and contributing to the consensus. God help the poor fool who grabs a battery, runs off to the lab and finds the solution on his or her own. As long as Plan B exists, why risk a career by playing cowboy?