[tracer4201]

Your post comes off as if the author is purposely avoiding these topics. No doubt they’re important, but while many software people will look at a company’s reputation or take ethics for granted (in the sense that of course it’s important), many software people, especially juniors, don’t stop to think about the business value of spending X on Y. Everything has a cost - for example, spending the extra time optimizing your code has a cost. Value is what you want to produce at the end of the day, not a grand architecture or extremely optimized code. Those may or may not be a means to an end. That’s not to say you should ignore ethical or legal consequences. I don’t think people generally want to break the law.

[icebraining]

People generally don't want the company to lose money either. Many ethical and even law violations happen for the same reason you gave: they don’t stop to think about it. Ethical and legal consequences are not always obvious.

[29athrowaway]

You are conflating software engineering good practices with ethics. They slightly overlap but are not the same.

Balancing strategy and tactics is something you do as you become senior. Pumping tech debt is a tactic, good practices are a strategy.