I’m no mechanical engineer, but I would assume those extreme tradeoffs occur more often when repairability is not prioritized from early iterations. I.e. “boss we’re 90% into the design cycle why are you bringing up the position of the oil filter now?”

There’s definitely a programming equivalent as well…

That is fine if you are say building a race car that will be essentially rebuilt anyway in between races, or in general where 0.1% extra performace/less weight from non-repair-friendly placement might be worth it.

Not for normal car