All of this reminds me of the software Death March book

https://www.amazon.com/Death-March-2nd-Edward-Yourdon/dp/013...

Where is the financial payoff? Is there a real possibility of a life changing exit? You need to actually believe in leadership's vision. Is the effort worth it? Do they even have a workable plan or are they just doing random things?

Do you mean this one? https://www.amazon.com/dp/013143635X ? Or do you mean a different book?

That's correct:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_march_(project_managem...

The source:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/013143635X

I don't doubt that Bataan is the original, original context, but as far as software engineering goes, the term comes from this book:

https://www.amazon.com/Death-March-2nd-Edward-Yourdon/dp/013...