I'm not trying to get you in trouble, but since this is an amA...
Can you expand on this a little bit? What made it so rueful?
I don't know how it could get me into trouble, so no worries.
Basically, I left WotC in 2001 for many reasons, but mainly because it had become very corporate and political. No big grudges or anything--it just wasn't for me. When WotC approached me to come back for 5e in 2011 (as a contractor), I was told everything was different. I was told that the environment was totally free of any of the corporate bs of the past and a great place for creativity. I was told we'd be revitalizing the whole game, and that this included amazingly cool things like bringing back Dragon magazine to print, reestablishing ties with the old guard (Zeb Cook, Tracy Hickman, Jeff Grubb, etc. maybe as consultants), beefing up the in-house staff (primarily with hiring back people with a lot of solid experience), and creating an aggressive initial release schedule with high-quality adventures and other products created by an in-house staff. In short, focusing specifically on the tabletop D&D experience, and not on licensing to video games, movies, and other things.
It was within a year there that I discovered that none of this was actually going to happen. Now, to be clear, I'm not saying I was lied to. I'm a realist and I know plans change. But a complete reversal of that initial plan--that is to say, a focus entirely on licensing the brand and turning D&D from a game and into a property--that wasn't something I wanted to be a part of, particularly in what turned out to be a disappointingly difficult (extraordinarily political) work environment.
Again, no big grudges at the time (other than, as a lifelong fan of the D&D game, I'm deeply saddened by the change of focus... but in retrospect they might have been inevitable). It just wasn't for me.