> It only starts looking unbelievably complex when you take control of every single stage and step, and are this doing the equivalent of running multiple enterprises.

Yup, and that's a good part of the problem with central planning and autarky. There is just too much going on for any one decision-maker to effectively handle.

There is a lesson there for large companies, I think. OTOH, go too far with decentralisation and you have Google's 8 or 9 different messaging systems …