Engineers don't buy into it because it's not cool. Complex systems are cool. It goes back to the phrase "well-oiled machine". Swiss clocks. People standing around a classic car with its hood open. A complex system of things working just perfectly is super cool, and fixing them when they break is a popular pastime.
Yeah, this is what I'm getting at with the variety thing. I think that good talent tempers this tinkering impulse when a potential breakage could imperil production. They learn that as fun as complexity can be in the right context, having to lose a weekend staying awake until 5am on Saturday night/Sunday morning trying to fix something stupid cancels it out.
Having a lab and doing experimental stuff is great, but choosing to stake your company's products on it should be a much weightier consideration. In practice, we see that this weight is apparently not felt by many.
