I’ve had the experience to sit in on a design review meeting and what I noticed was the culture was not as strict as I thought. There was a moderator who was basically the person that called the meeting together. He made sure every detail was given a chance to be talked about. The documents had to be reviewed prior to the meeting by the reviewers to save time. The thing you said about being forced to stay silent is not what I experienced. The team that wrote the document were given a chance to speak about why they did what they did. In my opinion this makes sense because they’re the ones who designed the document/device. But, once everyone had a chance to make a comment, the comments were generally taken as an improvement to the product rather than criticism – which is always a good thing. The designers were given the opportunity to ask any questions or clarifications at the end. The goal of these meetings is to ensure that all the products and documents are created effectively and any faults or errors are fixed.