The alternative to "tech debt" suggested in this article is "maintenance load" which immediately makes me think of naval aviation and why the iconic F-14 Tomcat

The alternative to "tech debt" suggested in this article is "maintenance load" which immediately makes me think of naval aviation and why the iconic F-14 Tomcat was retired and replaced with by the somewhat more pedestrian F-18E/F Super Hornet: because it required less maintenance per flight hour -- a lot less maintenance. It doesn't matter to the nation you're trying to defend if your Tomcat is theoretically superior to another plane that could have done the job if the Tomcat is stuck in the maintenance hanger having it's hydraulics system fixed (again) at the hour an enemy decides to launch an attack.