Coming from an organization where I spent > 10 hours a week on meetings, I hear you. I believe I spent more time writing emails than writing code. The code I did write was done at night after everyone left and there would be no more meetings and useless phone calls. Managed to create the most used/useful application in the organization and still nothing changed.

When it occurred to me that things are not going to change in my lifetime even with all the promises of upper management, I started creating side projects where I am in control of the full direction. When that wasn't enough, I also started looking for a new job. Joined a startup as a CTO/Lead Dev and was happier.