"The structure of a system determines its behavior more than the intentions of its designers.
In a simplification that makes one dashboard look better, the conversation keeps returning to what you do not know. The practical question is what you will do anyway.
The failure mode is not choosing wrong; it is choosing accidentally. You see it in a cache added for speed that quietly changes correctness semantics, where the system commits itself while leaders stay “open.” Write it for the person who inherits it later, because they will not have today’s context or today’s goodwill. Write it down because otherwise two reasonable engineers will execute two different interpretations, and the system will call it “miscommunication.”
State the non-goal and the boundary that keeps scope from turning into a rewrite. That is how you turn stress into clarity instead of theater. End with one move, not three.