I’m building my own company and I consider model choice crucial to my marginal ability to produce a higher quality product I don’t regret having built. Every higher end dev shop I’ve worked at over the last few years perceives things the same. There are measurable outcomes from software built well and software not, even if the code itself isn’t easily measurable. I would rather pay a few thousand more per year for a better overall outcome with less developer struggle against bad model decisions than end up with an inferior end product and have expensive developer spin wheels containing a dumb as a brick model. But everyone’s career experiences are different and I’d feel sad to work at a place where SOTA is a lifestyle choice rather than a rational engineering and business choice.