"Optimizing based on a lottery event seems counter-productive"

I think it depends on how often you "win" the lottery. If a lottery event happens once or twice a year and it's fairly hard to resolve, we classify them as land mines (or sea mines for the more maritime oriented people among us). These issues get a lower priority, but we'll try to work through them to avoid emergencies or lower their impact. So, maybe not optimizing, but increase resilience against lottery events.