> A mainline application used by a large cross-section of users has to weigh every feature against every other feature: how do they interact? does it make sense for the long term vision? can I maintain this for millions of users? A factory artifact targeting one to hundreds of users doesn't need to care about this. You can ship faster and looser, as a result.

I think this is the key here. Something I've been kind of aware, but haven't been able to put into words.

We used to have (and still have to a degree) massive applications with massive user counts. They "have" to serve tens of thousands of users with slightly differing use-cases, making the eventual result feel bloated to the ones who are just fine with the core functionality.

But if you are just running a "software factory" you can serve maybe a few hundred users. You get some libraries, string them together, add the logic _you_ (and the hundred other users) needs and then you can just say "no" to feature requests, keeping the solution focused.

If someone wants something else, they can boot up their own factory, fork your project and go "use this as an example, but add features X, Y, Z" to an AI agent and get their own variant for their needs - and maybe again a few other people.