I encountered this in a previous job. I told them during design phase the implementation was failing basic computer science knowledge and would cost the company a lot of excess computing costs (due to redundant work).

a quarter after launch it was a crisis because $5k a month customers were costing $50k a month in compute. The original designer put in some patches that got it down to $25k, and then $3k and was a "hero". By my estimates the limit of the actual work being done should have been < $500. But we didn't have time to implement that due to a quarterly insistence and folks all nodding their heads at eachother to get promoted.

> told them it was failing basic computer science knowledge

> i got a negative review for not being a "team player"

Effective communication is good for your career. People don't want to work with someone who slings distracting insults.

You can say "This will cost $50K, but we can't afford more than $5K, and I think we can do it $500", or "a 10x customer will cost 100x to serve, but a different design can bring that down to 10x".

SaaS without the sass.

you're not wrong in general, but wrong about my demeanor in this case.

Team player meant a lot of head nodding, and making each other look great in a previous company.

I know the scenario. I've been there. Sometimes people just want to move on. I've been in meetings where people got annoyed at me asking the "tough" questions and pressing them on their design for an hour. At the end you have to realize technical merit is not the final arbiter, it's mindshare, and that's usually driven by the "chosen" group or favorites.