[zhdc1]

> Who would want to be on the cleanup team when the glory goes to the path breakers?

This and the second system syndrome are both organizational issues. Why couldn't an organizational simply freeze the customer facing portion of the application (so no UX or added features) and tell a group of developers responsible for the refactoring that they will be judged on a set of achievable metrics, such as decreased infrastructure costs or better performance?

This would fall squarely within common managerial frameworks (it's basically Tuckman's group development model, or what you see at many startups that launch an MVP), except that the initial application development is handled by a different group of 'high performing' developers.

[tyre]

Because there are benefits that aren’t quantifiable. Developer velocity is incredibly challenging to measure objectively.

These initiatives have to be top-down priorities in the organization, with agreed upon importance.