It matters a lot to your board, your creditors and investors, the government. If you’re publicly held, it matters to a significantly larger number of investors

It matters a lot to your board, your creditors and investors, the government. If you’re publicly held, it matters to a significantly larger number of investors and changes your legal obligations somewhat. If you’ve ever heard someone talking about “the color of money” in a business context in regards to different types of incoming and outgoing accounts, this is what they’re talking about. Whether capex is better or worse than opex from any particular vantage point is so heavily context dependent that I’m unsuited to provide a general overview, but it is easy to see how it could matter when you compare expenses attributable to salary vs expenses attributable to the purchase of real property in much the same way it matters to you as an individual whether you used your finances to buy a house or pay someone to mow your lawn.