Of course I cannot know all the details involved. But there is a difference of opinion. I had a conversation with the product owner today and discussed those analogies. He brought up HOA -- why is he paying his HOA? I asked how his daughter would respond if he pointed her to the HOA. As the home owner, he is the one that must pound on the doors of the utility company and HOA to get the problem taken care of. He is the one that ultimately must follow up with site hosting, operations, and the customer to get the problem accepted or rectified.
There is not actually a problem within the product's direct source code, rather it is within the platform it runs on (Windows, Network, and client side factors). The user wants to open a file to import into the product, and the Microsoft file open dialog hangs due to a share drive dependency. The user does not care where the problem is. The product owner's engagement has been 'not me' while I informed him of the workflow, his code implementation, how many users were impacted, impact frequency, root cause, and engaged others on his behalf. I informed him that I would go a different route and uninvited him from further conversation. Then, he engaged.
I identify as a cat that is also a professional cat herder.