Somebody once also said that planning is still very useful even if the plan changes later because it helps those involved prepare for and understand the changes better when they do come.

When push comes to shove, if you give people cool tech, unless it's easy to mindlessly pick up and use they won't use it. When I was in, I had boxes and boxes of crap that was on the books that we never used (and didn't know how to use but had to inventory), then the stuff we actually used.