Just throwing opposite view. I saw money burned on test automation because manager needed to check the box. They got a guy that set some automation up in 6 months and then he left. Guy did not know the project and project was evolving in rapid pace so none of the GUI automation was working couple of weeks after he left - actually a lot of stuff stopped working while he was on it because project was moving under his feet.
That's the bigger issue. Why would you put someone in charge of testing something who doesn't know it? That's brainless. Your manager was not very competent, sorry you experienced that.
