These are no more 'games and tricks' than having to expend more energy walking uphill than downhill is a game or trick.
I am horrible at inter-office politics. I want so badly for things to be "efficient" - but it is always efficient for me. My boss has me print hard copies of email and put them in a physical folder AND has me copy the email as a PDF and sstore it in a sub folder of the project folder. Mind-blowingly inefficient on so many levels. But it's his way, and it's his firm. And I fought him on it, and so many other things, for so long, really fought with both of us screaming, I have poisoned the well. He won't ever trust me because I handled our conflicts so poorly in the past. He's allowed to handle them poorly - he pays my salary.
Putting in intentional errors so someone else can catch them and think they contributed... that IS 'games and tricks'. Whereas your example (sending things in an inefficient way) is just a matter of accommodating someone else's way of working.
Accommodation is a good idea, game-playing may work in the short run, but it does not build long-term trust.
What you are describing isn't a game or trick. It's what your boss is asking you to do that you are complaining about. My boss and others aren't saying "leave it slightly unfinished so I have some input and feel in control" to us. The situation you describe is your lack of communicating and/or understanding why your boss wants the hard copies. If my boss simply said "because I prefer paper and it's easier for me and/or regulations/audit trails require it." I'd say, "Okay." Then I'd decide to choose to do as he wishes and work on my merry way. A stupid game or trick would be if you had to stop your momentum to go and ask him every time "What font should it be in" even if you know he "always" says Arial.
UPDATE: I agree, it may be stupid that the email has to be in PDF. If you got to the bottom of a legitimate/reasonable reason as to why or if it just came done to "Because I want it that way" then turn and focus on improving/automating the process as much as possible.
I am horrible at inter-office politics. I want so badly for things to be "efficient" - but it is always efficient for me. My boss has me print hard copies of email and put them in a physical folder AND has me copy the email as a PDF and sstore it in a sub folder of the project folder. Mind-blowingly inefficient on so many levels. But it's his way, and it's his firm. And I fought him on it, and so many other things, for so long, really fought with both of us screaming, I have poisoned the well. He won't ever trust me because I handled our conflicts so poorly in the past. He's allowed to handle them poorly - he pays my salary.