What it means when engineers say "stop"
When all of the engineers at a company start yelling at the execs to stop pushing certain policies or goals, there are multiple reasons for it. Obviously, the short-term thing is "this is stupid, and we don't want to work on it". Then there's another level of "I don't want to be associated with a company which produces such trash".
There's more, though. "Other people also won't want to be associated with it" comes next. That leads to "those people are going to start quitting because they won't put up with it".
After that, you get "you're going to hire bozos to try to replace the amazing people who made it worthwhile to work here". Shortly thereafter, "the bozos make this place even more miserable than the execs do".
Finally, all you can say is "I quit".
So, execs, when they tell you to stop doing something, it might just be because they can see several steps down the road and are saying this is going to kill the company. Of course, to the execs, this is silly talk. It's not going to kill the company.
The execs are actually right. The company can and will live on for a long long time after it has been stripped of all that is good and wholesome.
After all, why hire one smartypants "10" when you can hire four "4"s and have a whole army of people who will follow your every command?