The author only barely touches on the issue of complexity that results from feature creep, which is the most fundamental difference between hardware and softwar

The author only barely touches on the issue of complexity that results from feature creep, which is the most fundamental difference between hardware and software. Hardware feature sets by their very nature have to be completed many months before tapeout occurs (sometimes years for extremely complex hardware like CPUs). Software often has to adapt to customer requirements by adding new features over the course of weeks. Software ends up becoming orders of magnitude larger and more complex than hardware as a result. Given budget constraints, testing is naturally going to be less thorough as a result.