[flappyeagle]

You are allowed to negotiate with your boss. You have agency.

This includes whether to attend a meeting, hours that you work, and other things that you might currently conceive of as obligations.

At the end of the day your boss only cares about looking good to their boss. If you can help them do that anything else is just a detail

[thunky]

I agree, but most (not all) don't have the leverage needed to get what they want. The boss thinks that dumb meeting makes them look good, so why would they want to let anyone opt out? Let one do it and the rest will follow, they figure.

So really, the options are typically 1) deal with it 2) quit.