[cmp0]

> Risk is much more tolerable in the last mile than the first one

Is that objectively true? I think you could also make the argument the other way that things compound when you innovate at the root.

I think it's your opinion that that's the case, and it generally makes sense to me as well, but I'm still saying it's a judgement call.

There are a lot of things / decisions at a company that don't strictly matter for the customer immediately but they still eventually matter for the customer - because they have a downstream impact. In this case, maybe you save that money and spend it somewhere else.