Value it brings today, against the total cost. “Can we build it?” is almost always yes.
High value now
Build it
Worth the tokens and the review.
Redo only the costly part
Incidents, slowness, or lost customers.
Low value now
Leave it
It works. A weekend rewrite gets you back to today.
Don’t build it
Clever, and no customer will pay.
Low total cost
High total cost