[webnrrd2k]

I think that taking the bargain would depend on the project... If it was software for a product that was on the market and had a lot of competitors, then it's a good deal as it would allow you to get ahead of the competition. Or, say, it was a new market and the features allow you to establish a strong lead. I'd definitely take the deal and then set up a team to do a refactor/rewrite or something.

If the deal was used on internal software that already did it's job relatively well, then it's probably not worth the long-term trade off.

I think that your larger point still stands, that most business people don't care about software engineering issues, but just want features, or solutions to problems, or whatever. Negotiating those issues in a business can be tough.