How disagreements are resolved is culture — sorry to hear that your workplace doesn’t value collaboration. It’s hard to make good design work happen in places there are hostile to exploring ideas together as different opinions should be encouraged — that’s how better solutions are found.

The culture around disagreement, and politics, is one of the primary things the boss defines through their behavior — so if you’re somewhere that isn’t healthy, look up: it’s the manager’s responsibility.

More than compromising your principles, the environment you describe where people have to hold back on useful feedback works against progress. It’s hard to do good work when you can’t speak your mind about the work itself.