I was a little lost at the first paragraph (we do have a name for the strategy behind the "no one ever got fired for buying an IBM" pitch[1]).
The next point is just weird for someone who knows anything about academic funding: maybe he's right if you limit "academics" to tenured professors who don't care about funding or the future of their post-docs and grad students, but for the rest of us status is an important part of the grant process. It's not as simple as "we like her, let's fund her grant" but grants are reviewed by your peers, so "status" is how we get payed.
The next point is just weird for someone who knows anything about academic funding: maybe he's right if you limit "academics" to tenured professors who don't care about funding or the future of their post-docs and grad students, but for the rest of us status is an important part of the grant process. It's not as simple as "we like her, let's fund her grant" but grants are reviewed by your peers, so "status" is how we get payed.
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear,_uncertainty_and_doubt#Bo...