[mumblemumble]

You're absolutely right. But I also find that what customers/executives actually want, and what they say they want, turn out to be different things once you start unpacking them.

And sometimes it's just a matter of framing. Don't say accurate, say, "Accurate to within x%" or "Rounded to the nearest $x" type of thing. But I certainly would never actually pick an argument over it. Sometimes they do know what they want. Other times they really don't, but you still don't get to decide for yourself how the problem is going to be solved.