You throw bodies at it. A small bunch of people will be overworked, stressed, constantly fighting fires and struggling to fight technical debt, implement features, and keep the thing afloat. Production is always a hair away from falling over but luck and grit keeps it running. To the team it's a nightmare, to the business everything is fine.
Yea. I can probably move to a more chill team, but I wouldn't work on anything nearly as cutting edge. I mentally check out for weeks at a time, then get back into it and deliver something large. I'm low key job hunting, but don't entirely trust that it'll be different anywhere else (previous jobs were like this too)
if you want to know why capitalism causes this, start a startup and prioritize quality, do not get to market, do not raise money, do not pass go, watch dumpster fires with millions of betrayed and angry users raise their series d