Is it long term pain if a small startup in a very competitive vertical gets to market quicker with code gen and finds market fit? Whether that results in a rewrite or a refactor, that is still a huge win and one that a lot of people will gamble on.
Debt is debt. Some of it is absolutely worth taking on.
I don’t have any issue with intentional debt when you understand the trade-off and have a clear payoff plan.
Do you have examples? Ideally a startup that isn’t itself selling AI to other AI companies