It was allowed to happen because there are no regulations covering these submarines, especially in international waters. Safety is generally opt-in because the people who commission them intend to use them, so of course they'll listen to engineers and do it right.

Of course sometimes you'll get someone so far up their own ass that they can't hear anything except their own farts.

You can also see the move-fast-and-break-things bullshit in what he said. That mentality sort of works for software development but silicon valley is exporting it into realms where breaking things means killing people.