Perfection is not over-engineering

Over-engineering is a failure of requirements gathering.

Over-engineering is solving the wrong problem. That’s the whole definition. Not “caring too much.” Not “making it too good.” Solving the wrong problem.

Perfection was never the enemy. Ambiguous requirements were. Get those right, get every constraint on the table, and the perfect solution stops being a fantasy. It becomes the only thing left standing.

The clearest tell that something is over-engineered: you start asking why are things built the way they are? and the answers don’t hold.