Power politics is always full of stupidity, as priorities and agendas are pushed as power games rather than human needs. Power politics brings out the worst in human communities while pushing out, breaking and destroying the best. Any structure with a hierarchy will suffer from this.
While most people agree that such structures are useful for decision-making, and that more horizontal structures are bad for fast moving communities. The question has to be asked, is the price of efficiency worth the cost of stupidity and squed agendas?
Horizontal structures can lead to a growth in stupidity in multiple smaller ways, but to an extent the smallness helps to mediate the big stupid paths and keeps humane agendas in focus
On balance, the second is better than the first, but how to communicate this to the efficiency focused modern world full of “power politics”.