>and what happens when JIRA does not reflect the actual priority as observed by devs?

Why do you believe devs alone define the "actual priority"? This stuff is collaborative, and I've worked with many devs who don't have the first clue as to what needs to be built by when in order to keep the business thriving.

> Why do you believe devs alone define the "actual priority"? This stuff is collaborative,

I do not believe that, of course it is collaborative. Some things are emergent, some are not. Some can be neatly broken down into fixed length tasks, some cannot. Some are planned, some are not. Some are top-down, some are bottom up. Some are obvious business function items, some are leftfield ideas.

I'm just feeding back that attempting to mediate and regulate that collaboration via JIRA is a bad idea. A common, and bad idea.

It's kind of weird how the subtext to every conversation in this topic is bad management, yet nobody wants to come out and say it.

You're not wrong, but also "we shape our tools, and thereafter our tools shape us". ( Marshall McLuhan )

JIRA tends to shape management into bad management. That is the grain of the tool.

It's a common symptom of devs who undervalue the rest of the business. And who think that code magically turns into dollars without effort.

Developers absolutely should not be deciding what is 'priority'. It's very unlikely they have access to the metrics, wider business strategy, internal and external stakeholders, necessary to determine this. That is the job of the Product Manager.

Developers should then be given access to those details so they can make better decisions.

You want essentially a hybrid product manager and developer role? That would be way too much for one person. There wouldn't be enough time.

Developers and operations should absolutely have input. They might not make the final decision, but they should have an informed say in the topic.

And, Developers absolutely should not be excluded entirely from deciding what is 'priority'. People at the cutting edge should have input.