I've worked as a pipeline supervisor at one of the biggest VFX studios. I very much understand these workflows. I've worked as an artist and a tech artist in perforce and SVN workflows too. I've had to support the workflows of a 1000+ workforce across multiple locations.

I don't think attributing my disagreement with you to not understanding workflows is a fair characterization.

I still think locking , while useful, is only mandatory for work cultures with poor communication. Otherwise, many companies get by with very large workforces who don't hit these issues without having locking.

Separation of code and art assets also don't need to be painful. It's very doable but does require some amount of architectural consideration.

And I very much acknowledge there are projects where code isn't the majority makeup, which is why I say that none of the VCS systems cover mixed projects well or cover all the needs of the others well.