"Agile" is neither the panacea or ultimate solution the Agilists purport it to be nor the horrible misguided philosophy/mindset etc. the doubters claim. It is no better nor worse than most other ways of working.

The biggest problem with Agile practices is that they claim to be something new when in reality people have worked iteratively or incrementally for ages. BUT it was the software "engineers" who, 20+ years ago wanted to be left alone in THEIR ivory towers to work on the "requirements".

Software development technology has improved IMMENSELY over the last 20 years, so those improvements, independent of Agile practices, have changed how we develop software - from big monolithic practices because it was really expensive to do it otherwise, to more flexible incremental ways of working. Those would have happened, Agile Manifesto or not.

But the Agile Industrial Complex, with its certifications and methodologies (I mean frameworks) have diminished the potential for iterative practices and thoughtful team organization to really flourish.

And quite frankly, the bottom up, anti-management mindset of many early Agile proponents was myopic and didn't help much at all. Software development is in service of business objectives, and that many Agile practices only put lip service in that area.

I wrote about my views on this topic back in 2018.

https://swkhan.medium.com/have-we-finally-thankfully-reached-peak-agile-lean-dc65597dcb3a