I'd say: Don't pick up the technical debt unless you have time to. If you do, make a song and dance about it, because otherwise no one will care.

So frustrating to read. So frustrating to have the dawning recognition that I'm probably in this kind of place right now.

I think of this sort of thing as dysfunction, but maybe that's not really the right take. So, frustration and performative cynicism aside... where does this sort of thing come from, systemically?