I'm not sure I understand the tradeoff. Given two tasks requiring an equal amount of work, are you saying that it's better to spend it on a 5% improvement than a 150% improvement? Sure, if all you have available are lots of 5% improvements, they'll also eventually add up. But won't you prefer to work on the biggest improvement/cost tasks first?
Perhaps it should be seen versus the "throw it all away and start over" tendency? Like in steady refactors vs. big rewrites.
Perhaps it should be seen versus the "throw it all away and start over" tendency? Like in steady refactors vs. big rewrites.