When the CTO decided that he wouldn’t do anything about my work getting sabotaged by a busy-body from another department. As soon as I had signed a new contract, I handed in my notice and told our head of HR (who was very understanding but ultimately powerless) all the reasons why I quit. They didn‘t even try to make me a better offer. I don‘t think I did anything wrong, in fact the CTO had awarded me the company’s “tech employee of the year” award just 3 months earlier.

Middle of the road: pay your employees in ping pong tables, increase monthly ping pong table quota.

Couldn’t he have just started a blog, like a normal person?

Sounds like you escaped a violent theocratic cult.