Easy: Short term risk versus long term risk. If I deploy with minimal changes today, I'm taking a non-zero short-term risk for zero short-term gain. While I to

Easy: Short term risk versus long term risk. If I deploy with minimal changes today, I'm taking a non-zero short-term risk for zero short-term gain. While I too am generally a long-term sort of engineer, it's important to understand that this is a valid argument on its own terms, so you don't try to counter it with just "piffle, that's stupid". It's not stupid. It can be shortsighted, it leads to a slippery slope where every day you make that decision it is harder to release next time, and there's a lot of corpses at the bottom of that slope, but it isn't stupid. Sometimes it is even correct, for instance, if the system's getting deprecated away anyhow why take any risk? And there is some opportunity cost, too. No matter how slick the release, it isn't ever free. Even if it's all 100% automated it's still going to barf sometimes and require attention that not making a new release would not have. You could be doing something else with that time.