You may not mean it this way, but the your post makes it sound like complexity is created out of whole cloth (so to speak) by adding (in your scenario) searchable old emails.
And true to the article, that is only half of the equation. Complexity is not created as much as it is moved around. By adding code that makes old emails searchable instead of simply archiving them moves the business complexity of customers with this specific edge case to your code base.
It is then a business decision. And I agree with you that it is often not worth it, but the art of business is in understanding when taking on the added complexity is worth it to differentiate your product over your competitors. Or stated another way, strategically deciding to reduce the complexity of your customer's business and increasing the complexity of your own.
This is not always an obvious decision, hence why the developer rank and file often look at it from one side only, and the product manager's/sales staff often look at it from their side.
It takes a strong leader who understands both sides to make the right strategic decision. When this decision is not made thoughtfully you end up with an overburden of complexity for a subset of customers that don't really move the needle on your business.
And true to the article, that is only half of the equation. Complexity is not created as much as it is moved around. By adding code that makes old emails searchable instead of simply archiving them moves the business complexity of customers with this specific edge case to your code base.
It is then a business decision. And I agree with you that it is often not worth it, but the art of business is in understanding when taking on the added complexity is worth it to differentiate your product over your competitors. Or stated another way, strategically deciding to reduce the complexity of your customer's business and increasing the complexity of your own.
This is not always an obvious decision, hence why the developer rank and file often look at it from one side only, and the product manager's/sales staff often look at it from their side.
It takes a strong leader who understands both sides to make the right strategic decision. When this decision is not made thoughtfully you end up with an overburden of complexity for a subset of customers that don't really move the needle on your business.