To be fair, SpaceX has some really cool ideas and capabilities. It's the way they run their business that I don't like. They claim lower cost because they cut corners on things like testing and QA, and it's cost them a few rockets. As part of that, their hiring practices are designed to avoid the "taint" of institutional knowledge.
That's the way I see it. Space X needs a small board of people who can overrule Musk with even a single dissenting vote.
At NASA there are dozens of people who have the veto authority that leads to aborting a launch. Grissom, White, and Chaffee had concerns about Apollo 1 but didn't have the authority to do anything but destroy their own careers. (And Grissom was already on thin ice with NASA)
This little nervous joke of theirs to Apollo Spacecraft Program Office manager Joe Shea proved tragically that they were correct.
It isn't that we don't trust you, Joe, but this time we've decided to go over your head.Joe Shea did have concerns about the pure oxygen environment and recommended changes like removing velcro tabs from the capsule and running the test in an unpressurized cabin. Unfortunately he didn't supervise the changes being made.