This is exactly my experience. Senior management spent 2 years convinced that 1) we didn't need project managers, and 2) tech leads weren't just glorified project managers besides all of the evidence to the contrary. The messaging was 'we're working out the kinks - it shouldn't take that much time is our processes are being implemented correctly'. I bought in for about 3 months before it became pretty clear that coordinating stakeholders and balancing business and technical requirements was a full-time job. The role became a mess that burned out anyone in it