In many companies choosing "to not serve or serve late" will result in you not serving at all, i.e., being fired.

In my experience managers want to commit to their manager and/or the customer the date when the project/product will be completed and its cost before the technical requirements for it are understood in any detail. The result is that the resources for the project, the high-level scope of the project, and the delivery date are all determined before the work starts. The only variables left to be "agile" about are the quality of the design and code and the number of hours the developers work per week. This is not a formula for long-term success or happy developers.