This is a good insight. The real gambles behind tech debt are not taken on the same way a company would take on real debt. If there is analysis of it, and it's not just a sneaky shortcut by a dev (either being lazy or working to a deadline), then it's not considered in terms of future cash flow or any other kind of meaningful metrics that matter over time. It only comes due if you want it to; you only pay interest on it when you interact with it. Sometimes it really is Good Enough for the slapdash thing you're working on. Sometimes more crap on top of more crap is just how the thing you're working on goes, and trying to fix it is tilting at windmills... especially if it's just to make your employer rich by mildly improving efficiency on their ad delivery platform.