Maybe this is just so entrenched that it's a lost cause, but I feel like 90% of managers are just cargo-culting weird behaviors from other managers that serve no purpose (e.g. using a certain business slang like 'circle-back', never expressing genuine emotion, being incredibly circumspect, hiding the very existence of all disagreements).

It's a weird cultural thing, and what's especially peculiar is that nobody genuinely believes great leaders should do that. Everybody knows great leaders should be genuinely passionate and sincere and non-robotic. But here we are...