Of course this can vary wildly, but I've never felt afraid to defy management on that one. Half the time, they don't even need to know. And the other half of the time... what are they going to do? Fire me? Fine, then their project will be filled with nothing but wallpaper-patchers and I'll be somewhere else doing good work.
(And of course, sometimes just patching the wallpaper is the right course of action, but it's rare to find management capable of accurately assessing this trade-off.)
Yeah, at a certain point I just stop caring what management thinks and just doing what I think is right. I usually don't get the recognition I think I deserve for preventing future issues but no one complains either.
(And of course, sometimes just patching the wallpaper is the right course of action, but it's rare to find management capable of accurately assessing this trade-off.)