Just to reemphasize your rewording and redirection, the delays and paraphrasing that you mention are just the tip of that iceberg. In my experience, lack of direct contact with the actual end users tends to end up with the software being built to do what the end users' manager thinks they need (or, still worse, what the manager thinks they should need), which often has little or no connection to the reality of what the end users will be doing with it.

Design-by-management-proxy also tends to lead to the software being created solely to duplicate the existing process(es), but with newer, flashier technology, while allowing the developers to get in there, talk to the users, and actually gain at least a rudimentary understanding of not only what the end users are/will be doing, but also why will often allow for better processes to be developed.