The cheapest decision today can become the most expensive pattern tomorrow.

Individual decisions look small, and patterns do not. Choosing the quick option once is nothing; choosing it by default for a decade builds a life around workarounds, replacements, and the accumulated cost of things done twice. The pattern is what is expensive, and no single instance ever feels like it.

When a choice feels trivially cheap, ask what happens if it becomes your standard. You are usually not deciding once, you are setting a default, and defaults are where the money goes.