I agree that so much about software development today has gone down the wrong path. The big open rooms is one bad path: they destroy focus and concentration, which is essential for productivity and quality. And the purported benefit - osmotic communication - actually does not occur: there are studies about that, showing that in open rooms, poeple mentally shield themselves from others in a desperate attempt to try to focus and block out the distractions of people walking around in one's peripheral vision, barely overheard conversations and other noises, and the simmering fear of an imminent interruption.

And yes, standups are a horrible waste of time and mental energy. And yes, the whole team does NOT need to be present - does not WANT to be present - for an all-day feature grooming ceremony. What they WANT to be present for is a review of the features to be developed and then some design discussions. And they also would like to actually show their work to real customers to see real user feedback - not PO feedback.

And yes, methodologies such as Scrum define a simpleminded process that distracts from the real issues while introducing questionable ceremonies and very questionable doctrine such as that a team does not need a true leader.

But Agile is not Scrum. And eXtreme Programming (XP), which launched the Agile movement, is quite different from the Agile Manifesto (which came after XP). The Agile Manifesto's principles appear to be an attempt to get back to the approaches that Chris Fox advocates, pushing aside big processes. But then Scrum stole the Agile movement, and now we are where we are.