I think you're accidentally conducting a motte and bailey fallacy here.
It's making an ambitious risky claim (make things simpler than you think they need to be) then retreating on pushback to a much safer claim (the all-encompassing "simplest thing possible")
The statement ultimately becomes meaningless because any interrogation can get waved away with "well I didn't mean as simple as that."
But nobody ever thinks their solution is more complex than necessary. The hard part is deciding what is necessary, not whether we should be complex.
It's making an ambitious risky claim (make things simpler than you think they need to be) then retreating on pushback to a much safer claim (the all-encompassing "simplest thing possible")
The statement ultimately becomes meaningless because any interrogation can get waved away with "well I didn't mean as simple as that."
But nobody ever thinks their solution is more complex than necessary. The hard part is deciding what is necessary, not whether we should be complex.