Who said anything about bugs? Getting an API right is hard, but if your API is simple, then by definition there are fewer things that can be changed, and that

Who said anything about bugs? Getting an API right is hard, but if your API is simple, then by definition there are fewer things that can be changed, and that means there's less need to refactor. I'd rather create 3 simple APIs and throw away the two that didn't work well, than create 1 complex API that needs to be constantly refactored. Small, immutable, simple components are preferable over large, mutable, complex components. Saying I am "seriously naive" implies I don't have experience with designing components in this way, but it is precisely because of my experience that I advocate this position in the first place. The APIs I've had to change and refactor have been complex; the APIs I have not had to have been simple. Over the past few years, I have been slowly moving away from complex APIs, and there has been a dramatic decline in the amount of refactoring work I've done. This is not to say that it's easy to create simple APIs, but good design is never easy, and I don't think it's naive to say that if you want good design, you need good designers.