I think there needs to be one more aspect accounted for, and that is the domain. The domain might naturally push you towards larger (or smaller) blobs than you

I think there needs to be one more aspect accounted for, and that is the domain. The domain might naturally push you towards larger (or smaller) blobs than you would otherwise anticipate, and in such cases I don’t think it makes sense to fight the domain — you have to adapt the team and software boundaries (map) to the ground reality (terrain), and find people who can function effectively with an atypical map — be it extra complexity or communication. I interpret Kartik’s point as stating that it’s counterproductive to split naturally integrated domains (terrain) for the convenience of map making.