Sounds like it worked by design to me. I feel certain that they didn't want you to be able to do that transition. Was that a well thought out decision, probably not. Think about the training most product managers have. My last product manager had a degree in Chem E. She wasn't dumb, but she didn't know the first thing about UI design or what influenced user response rates. She did know what her KPI was and number go up. Company now out of business. We are both out of a job :(