Reading this as someone who mostly does software, the point about "anything you don't specify will be done least cost" is kinda eye-opening. We have similar issues with LLMs now actually - if you dont spell out exactly what you want, it fills in the gaps with whatever is most common.

The 3-6 month feedback loop for hardware mistakes sounds brutal tho. I can fix bugs in hours, cant imagine waiting months to learn a design decision was wrong.

Congrats on shipping!