"make software development purely transactional and performance/pay would be directly tied to metrics."
That's what doesn't work to make good products. A focus on individual metrics to the exclusion of team dynamics doesn't work that well.
"What I'm seeing is a lazy, conservative mindset of people who feel scared and threatened by a reform shaking up the very core of a system they feel benefits them personally. "
I mean that's kinda what I was talking about with a bunch of managers not being able to hack it. I don't think you get what I was saying; if HR doesn't change, you get the same people trying the same model and applying it to a new framework, which will fail. You need a better focus on the people individually and on the systems you build for them to work well together and that requires a "people" or "HR" department that actually functions well and has investment.