I feel like the problem came at the beginning: there was a requirement that was a difficult problem, and the developers needed to take the time then and do some

I feel like the problem came at the beginning: there was a requirement that was a difficult problem, and the developers needed to take the time then and do some Big Design Up Front to the point that they could get the users to collaborate in a solution to understand how Big a problem it was. The team also needed to evolve, starting with a very small implementation and evolve it to handle each additional use case in a way that the stakeholders felt there was progress in their biggest pain points. It's an experienced lead that takes their hands off the keyboard for a few weeks and immerses themselves in the social problem. (And yes, sometimes it means breaking big problems into small pieces as a team and organizing around the work in separate steps, even if that feels unsatisfying.)