And then you get an in-memory SQL database that is used for cached settings with a text-based SQL query to retrieve every configuration setting (thousands of times during a login) and have a login that takes many seconds to run.
Literal example... replaced with a lock-free hashmap, and reduced the blink of an eye in terms of time.
I don't see the problem here: the original dev delivers quickly, the next dev gets to solve an interesting problems and gets to show off how much time they saved.
Delivering the over-complicated feature and improving the performance of the over-complicated feature both seem to get more praise than shipping the simple version to begin with.
Literal example... replaced with a lock-free hashmap, and reduced the blink of an eye in terms of time.