It really doesn't have to be. If you come from a hardware background, you get used to the idea of quickly prototyping with techniques (e.g. breadboard electron

It really doesn't have to be. If you come from a hardware background, you get used to the idea of quickly prototyping with techniques (e.g. breadboard electronics) and materials (e.g. 3D prints in plastic instead of CNC milled parts) because it is vastly faster and cheaper. See also scale models etc. The problem with software is it nearly infinitely malleable, so the tempation is always there to think that you will be faster if you ship-of-Theseus your current prototype into production code. It works sometimes, but often it's faster to actually prototype, then do it "right" from what you've learned. It's a skill though, to know what to concentrate on and what to skip/fake/ignore.