Building a car probably costs more in production than in design, so you could afford to have several design projects. But building software is nearly nothing but design... I couldn't imagine building 3 DB backend with 1/3 the programmers workforce each and still making a profitable product.
Sometimes not deciding anything is good though. If instead of basing an app strongly on a specific library/platform/etc., you program something fairly generic and get to decide later, the more power to you.
I think some time ago, Microsoft used to have two different internal versions of Word, for example... the one which was better won, and was the one used by people.
I can imagine lots of big companies doing this with internal software and coming out way ahead. Instead, they bet all of their money on one bug uber project, and it comes out bloated and mediocre.
In the startup space, the entire company can be one trial project. You don't need a meeting because one person can just decide what they're going to use.
Sometimes not deciding anything is good though. If instead of basing an app strongly on a specific library/platform/etc., you program something fairly generic and get to decide later, the more power to you.