Not sure if / who am I quoting, but this thought isn't my for sure: the more layers of management the company has, the more times the incentives are inverted between the planning at the very top and the implementation at the very bottom.
It does often feel like Chinese whispers to the people at the very bottom: the orders make no sense whatsoever due to the distortion coming from the middle management. And, I totally agree with your assessment that OP sounds kind of sarcastic about the whole thing. Also the way they phrase it suggests it: it's not even what your boss wants, it's what's going to make your boss happy (if the boss is an idiot, they might want things that will end up making them feel sad, but that only makes your job harder as now you should also anticipate what would actually make them feel happy rather than dully following their advice.)
It does often feel like Chinese whispers to the people at the very bottom: the orders make no sense whatsoever due to the distortion coming from the middle management. And, I totally agree with your assessment that OP sounds kind of sarcastic about the whole thing. Also the way they phrase it suggests it: it's not even what your boss wants, it's what's going to make your boss happy (if the boss is an idiot, they might want things that will end up making them feel sad, but that only makes your job harder as now you should also anticipate what would actually make them feel happy rather than dully following their advice.)