"gun to your head" is maybe not appropriate for work, but the exercise is good for cutting to the core of a task when necessary. It's really the same question as what is the minimum viable product.
Yeah, I've certainly seen cases where something was overbuilt and 90% of the time was wasted.
But I've also worked at places where things were underbuilt (e.g 0 test environments whatsoever except prod). If there was a gun to my head, to finish something in 1 hour, I'd test in prod.
So I think advice that sometimes is useful, sometimes is damaging, isn't really helpful. Not unless there's an easy way to tell which situation is which.
I think the exercise is more about exposing you to other solution options (to 'break your anchoring bias'). You still have to exercise judgement as to which solution is right for the situation.
But I've also worked at places where things were underbuilt (e.g 0 test environments whatsoever except prod). If there was a gun to my head, to finish something in 1 hour, I'd test in prod.
So I think advice that sometimes is useful, sometimes is damaging, isn't really helpful. Not unless there's an easy way to tell which situation is which.