you write "promptly fired when they got in the way of the politics", "all this was arranged anyway, by a lot of dirty back room politicking", "for darn good marketing reasons, BART was going to use all new car designs and specs anyway". No disagreement there, but that is why I have contempt for most of the design decisions. As far as I am concerned they got two things right, third rail and level boarding. As to the actual hardware purchased, they were victimized in typical Defense Dept style--low ball bid w/ cost overruns planned from the get go. IIRC the price jump from the first 250 cars to the next 200 was almost double (because they were then the sole bidder). The 90 sec headway had supposedly been achieved in the State St Subway w/"obsolete" standard railway signaling.(albeit w/ better ingress/egress cars).

As you suggest, it is possible for otherwise honorable persons to work within such an organization. but I am not required to admire their product.