Whale – Me? A Strata Manager? I’m just an old retired guy with an interest in the industry. 
That perspective you have gained is something that a lot of owners could benefit from. Most think they understand strata, but in reality they are so far removed from reality it isn’t funny. Unfortunately most won’t appreciate just how much work you are doing on their behalf.
struggler – If you were as sensible and level headed on the phone as in your post here your Strata Manager wouldn’t have hated to hear from you at all. They would have realised they could actually work with you as opposed to the screamers who they usually have to deal with who are only interested in abusing, swearing and making threats. Those people are impossible to deal with and steal time that an SM could be spending attending to the civilised people.
You have summed up a lot of the issues beautifully.