I get your point about how individualised development is part of the problem. I just want to point out how these rituals to divine the future of a project can become absolutely cursed when done as a team effort. Sitting by yourself and pondering how long it will take to make the computer go beep is a miserable experience, having to discuss the minutiae of how long something will take because management got the idea that this will make the estimates "more accurate" is many times worse.