It's about having most compromises be Not Totally Stupid and have the worst ones only be locally stupid. There is a big universe out there of compromises that

It's about having most compromises be Not Totally Stupid and have the worst ones only be locally stupid. There is a big universe out there of compromises that fulfill those criteria. As you imply, a lot of the time it's more about constantly fighting for Less-Bad-and-avoiding-Dumb than about architecture as such.