The team that made Morrowind exploited this weakness and just presented Todd with shit they knew would be rejected first, then showed him what they really wanted to do, making it seem less wacky and thus getting approval from Howard.
They really should show the current people the tricks of the trade. Though Howard should also probably be less micro-managey. Everything has to go through and be approved by him. That's why so much of it sucks.
He is essentially the industry's current version of John Romero.
