People need a “why” to what they do. Generally “I do what I’m told because that is what the process says” doesn’t scale as well as “we are here to get airplanes where they need to go”. The narrative doesn’t have to be outlandish, in fact unrealistic stories give narratives a bad reputation.

What you do need is a simple why you are coming to work that is beyond “to get a paycheck”.

It can also serve as a helpful reference point for "what am I (still) doing here?" so that you can judge when you perhaps should not be.

True enough. If I am sitting in the backseat or front and the driver is meandering, I might think of bailing, yeah.

I don't see those things as opposed - you want teams aligned, you want people to be able to plan and collaborate both the short and long term. A good process left shifts as much as possible so teams start out fairly well aligned and don't necessarily drift apart. A bad process requires constant interventions to pull teams back together. I think a clear, compelling narrative of where an organisation is going and why helps here, but it's certainly not the only prescription.

Process without narrative means nobody knows why they are doing what they are doing, which means nobody can question, change, or iteratively improve on it. This works fine for a while.

Yes, and many are.

From what I hear Disney is very much a “process” company these days.

You can draw your own conclusions about whether Disney is doing very well or not, though.