And I've fixed a few systems by properly engineering their schema on the database level. Every single system I've encountered that had issues with scaling, per

And I've fixed a few systems by properly engineering their schema on the database level. Every single system I've encountered that had issues with scaling, performance, tech debt, etc have all been due to badly denormalized (and broken) database schemas, with no one understanding who did what why or what piece of code owns what part of the schema. You start getting arcane knowledge and little fiefdom silos and grumpy grey-beards with inflated savior complexes that are the "goto person" despite the whole thing being ridiculously simple.