Cant recreate a space probe 30 years ago to replace the one malfunctioning now.
Cant recreate makret share gained against compeitors with stability problems.
Interesting point though, definitely ignored it til now.
Iguess the point is, everything is a trade off, and we shouldnt be acting like its either high quality or high throughput or high cost. Its somehwere in between and you get to choose depending on your contlstraints and needs.
I personally force stakeholders to define sunset dates on the system / code ill be writing.
If its sunset date is never, cost of development proportional to roi approaches zero.
If the sunset date is near, cost of development gets very, very expensive.
Having that information both informs my priorities and the understanding of how long development will take / cost.