> The two aren’t in conflict; often they reinforce each other

I’d think they _are_ inherently in conflict. Every person has 24 hours per day, and they can spend them on researching and doing what’s right or on reaching consensus. There is some mutual reinforcement to some extent (as it’s usually right to have a reasonable consensus on what’s the right choice), but beyond some basic level there’s always tradeoff.

And for programming language designers, I really appreciate when they make the right long-term choices even if I don’t understand initially why they were made.