Accountability? Is that attitude any different from just asking for money and refusing to explain what it’s for?

Wouldn’t you expected to have to provide some level of justification if you were, say, requesting a new development machine?

There is a difference between spending $2000+ on a new computer and $10, which is about what a terabyte costs. Probably just having the discussion itself would waste more resources than just giving the storage space.

The meeting to bring in the relevant stakeholders and discuss that reasoning literally costs more than just fucking buying some cloud space.

Had a boss that would swoop into “suspicious” meetings.

“There’s 10 people here whose time I bill out at $250/hr each, spending an hour discussing whether to buy a $1,000 software license? Why?”

"Because you don't give us access to the financials, so we have no frigging idea if we can afford it, Frank."

"Some of us don't like jumping into things without looking."

I wager your boss would not be amused with me.