There's some sense in which all technologies restrain (or perhaps constrain) us, especially over time, because one of the strongest forces in day-to-day existence is inertia. We go with what's going; we stand with what's stood.

I'm not arguing with your main point, though. In the workplace, there are technologies that are essential to the organization's mission and goals. When the mission shifts and the goals change, some organizations adapt or even discard what had been core technology, because it doesn't get them where they need to go.

To the extent that some subset of a large organization is removed from its core mission -- staff functions rather than line functions, for example, or a product that so dominates its market that competition is nonexistent -- the technologies used by that subset are insulated from the pressing need to change.

And often that's where those technology-specific experts come in. There's an unavoidable dynamic between process and product, but the specialists tend to cluster at the process end.