It is absolutely not a "perform or else" rule. Why are you reading so far into this? We really do have a rule about tech-debt changes, and it's a useful insight into why you might or might not want to work here, which is why we bring it up, despite the possibility it might alienate people; we'd like to be as honest as we can be. Worrying about people reading hustle-culture bullshit into stuff like this is a reason not to be transparent, which sucks.