I feel like half the time issues are caused by adding some stupid feature that nobody really wants, but makes it in anyways because the incentive is to add features, not make good software.
People rarely react well if you tell them "Hey this feature ticket you made is poorly conceived and will cause problems, can we just not do it?" It is easier just to implement whatever it is and deal with the fallout later.
It's hard to prove the cost to a feature or bug fix or library upgrade we desperately need has been doubled by all of the features we didn't need.
My 'favorite' is when we implement stupid, self-limiting, corner-painting features for a customer who leaves us anyway. Or who we never manage to make money from.
People rarely react well if you tell them "Hey this feature ticket you made is poorly conceived and will cause problems, can we just not do it?" It is easier just to implement whatever it is and deal with the fallout later.