Who bears the risk of junior spilling a juice cup all over the expensive servers?

Passion isn't important. Cost and risk are important. The processes are put in place to (attempt) to minimize cost and risk associated with software development. Experience teaches us that cost and risk are very high when building software.

When it's your money paying for the development effort, feel free to structure it so that you can chase your passion.

I sympathize with the idea that this kind of bureaucracy can suck the life out of developers, but guys, this is work. If it were that fun, they wouldn't have to pay you to do it.