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This is such a useful concept! Surely someone gave it a name much earlier, right?

Edit: The closest thing that came to mind is the idiom "penny-wise and pound-foolish".

Parkinson's law of triviality (aka bikeshedding) could be considered a subset of this behaviour.

Bikeshedding is when a group of people form opinions about, and squabble over something frivolous and irrelevant, but appealing to the lowest common denominator.

Offer a group of people the opportunity to design a nuclear powered aircraft carrier, and no one says boo, but ask them which color is prettiest for a shed to park their bikes in, and suddenly everybody puts in their two cents, ad-nauseum.

Amdahl's law

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