Good thoughts. I agree with much.
I quite disagree with the following: “Most projects don't need to ‘scale’”
I get that you’re probably referring to theoretically infinite scaling provided by stuff like microservices, containers, and serverless functions, but I do think it’s part of our job to consider the external factors that affect the functionality of our software. Similar to types being assertions about the external world, so too the design of the code and how it handles scale is an assertion about external factors. It’s important to define the bounds of what our software can handle in terms of throughput and what should happen in case those assumptions break or approach their outer bounds.
I think most projects need careful attention to handling unexpectedly large throughput gracefully.
I think most projects need careful attention to handling unexpectedly large throughput gracefully.