Yes, 100%. A salesperson on commission does not care about the long-term maintenance costs of a decision of this nature. And I don't blame them, it's not some

Yes, 100%. A salesperson on commission does not care about the long-term maintenance costs of a decision of this nature. And I don't blame them, it's not something they should care about. A product owner? They may care if they're actually invested (stock options, co-ownership, etc) but they also may just leave after a few years after a better offer comes along or a buyout happens. A software engineer? It's the same as the product owner, they may care for some period but why not just leave when a better offer comes along. I've pondered this issue as the "Peter Gibbons" problem. Why would anyone in the chain of software development care about the software itself? There's no incentive to consider the long-term cost impact of implementing a custom feature because you can always just find a new job if the product gets unwieldy.