I try to frame it a bit more with regards to project management, where I feel any discussion of tech debt is bad for the project. To even start talking about it

I try to frame it a bit more with regards to project management, where I feel any discussion of tech debt is bad for the project. To even start talking about it you have to start making many assumptions, for starters the assumption that the project will be successful to then later have to maintain. Then there are many many other assumptions to follow, and I feel that it is generally detrimental for it to even be discussed. It always involves some upfront price/scope/time on a project in trade for some future unknown cost savings. Fair point about the game hacking though they don't always have such constraints, but they do help close the gap by inventing these great new hacking tools!