Still, those refactorings can be justified as necessary enhancements, important to the survival of the business.
For that, of course, you need a relationship where there is a strong leader at the head of the IT organisation, who's willing to set priorities that will satisfy both the business and IT, and where the business side respects the IT organisation so that they don't constantly attempt to steam-roller over IT initiatives with their own urgent changes.
So, effectively, a stronger IT organisation is required. Despite the OP's assertion that IT departments are full of smart people, they are also full of not-so-smart people who don't do a good job. Once the business side is stung by repeated delays and issues, they stop trusting the IT side and the problems start increasing...
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Still, those refactorings can be justified as necessary enhancements, important to the survival of the business.
For that, of course, you need a relationship where there is a strong leader at the head of the IT organisation, who's willing to set priorities that will satisfy both the business and IT, and where the business side respects the IT organisation so that they don't constantly attempt to steam-roller over IT initiatives with their own urgent changes.
So, effectively, a stronger IT organisation is required. Despite the OP's assertion that IT departments are full of smart people, they are also full of not-so-smart people who don't do a good job. Once the business side is stung by repeated delays and issues, they stop trusting the IT side and the problems start increasing...