[jxramos]

I think there's a lot packed into that at all cost phrase at the end. I'm realizing that with development of technology or the pursuit of truth, anything that detracts from some main objective comes at some cost. When political angling arises, or maintaining the status quo, or whatever extra objective is added and overlayed onto a project which is not directly aligned with the outcome of the project you expose your development to getting lost in the weeds of suboptimality. How deep can those weeds get? Who knows, but trying to maintain face or balance a lot of other accessory details can occupy a lot of time and attention.

This kind of harkens to the optimality surrounding meritocracy based systems.