First of all, I think we can never really know the inner state of another. It's much more valuable to see how this principle has worked in your own life, than to try to determine how it worked in someone else's.

But I think there's a difference between making peace, while still preferring your manifestation, and making peace because the manifestation is too scary or seemingly unrealistic. For instance, it would make sense that for someone to lose weight, not only would they have to make peace with their body now, but they'd also have to believe and be open to losing weight being possible. I'd ask such a person how they feel when they consider the idea of losing weight. If they feel tense or negative about it, it would suggest to me underlying resistance that they're not looking at.

The same with someone who hates his current job, but made peace with it. Was he really open to the new job, and feeling good about it?

Robert Fritz has the idea of structural tension. That is, accept your reality as it is now, but also look to your future reality. I don't agree with all of his concepts, but I think it has some value.

Richard Dotts has a book called Mastering the Manifestation Paradox. In it, he says that if you imagine your desires on a scale from 0 to 10, where 0 is that you don't desire it at all, and 10 is that you desperately desire it and obsess over it, manifestations come the fastest at around a 5. That is, it is important to you, but you are able to detach enough to allow it to enter into your life effortlessly. If you've made peace to such a degree that you honestly don't care about it anymore-- that is, if it has reached almost to 0--then you probably won't receive it.

Also I'd say that people get the essence of their desire. If the person wanting a new job was able to more easily get the essence of his desire by changing a few components of the current job, then that's probably what would happen. It operates on the path of least resistance.