To be fair there are diminishing returns to additional hires, typically hiring one additional developer produces maximum 20% additional throughput, often lower

To be fair there are diminishing returns to additional hires, typically hiring one additional developer produces maximum 20% additional throughput, often lower after onboarding/hiring too green. You might have to double or triple team size to get 20-30% increase. So I see the temptation to "get more done with less" although the reality is you actually drop throughput in the long term.