Theo sees more support for tooling work
Theo says teams are more willing to fund environment and automation work than they used to be. He recalls concern from bosses and teammates when developers spent substantial time refining their editor setup. He now encourages his own team to invest in tooling after they had internalized that it was not worthwhile.
Ask for limited time to improve shared tools
Ask for a time-boxed piece of agent-tooling work instead of assuming that the team will welcome it. Explain how the improvement would serve teammates' agents, making the proposed benefit broader than your own setup. Show a concrete win from that work before asking the team to allocate more time.
Recheck assumptions that managers oppose tooling work
This matters if you still assume management views deep tooling work as time away from useful engineering. Theo's experience gives you a reason to ask whether that assumption still holds on your team. If the team has already declined the investment, his anecdote does not supply approval to proceed anyway.
Does your team welcome time spent on tools?
Theo's claim about changing team attitudes is anecdotal, and the video does not establish your team's tolerance. His encouragement of his own team cannot settle how much time your teammates consider worthwhile. Use the idea to open a specific tooling proposal, then ask rather than assume that it is welcome.