Whenever I see the "worse is better" meme, I know I'm in store for a criticism of some engineering decisions or other by someone who doesn't understand the deci

Whenever I see the "worse is better" meme, I know I'm in store for a criticism of some engineering decisions or other by someone who doesn't understand the decision criteria. (And often, someone who was pushing an alternate solution that failed because of this lack of understanding.) Engineering is more than just implementing theoretical work. It's about making tradeoffs in the real world.