I think we're just bad at predicting the future. You can go go fast and sling code at the wall because the odds of ever reaching FAANG scale is low and you want

I think we're just bad at predicting the future. You can go go fast and sling code at the wall because the odds of ever reaching FAANG scale is low and you want to be pragmatic, and then one day you accidentally do hit FAANG scale and you're in the news every week for security breaches and outages. You can also do everything DRY and micro-serviced from the beginning, run out of runway and crash. Or you could get to FAANG scale and realize you need to rewrite everything because you didn't foresee X, Y, Z requirements and technology has shifted 20 yards to the left. My approach is the gardener mindset. Think about organic growth up front when writing the code, but also be pragmatic and start with a "minilith" with interfaces in the right places.