They matter to builders that care. While software may deliver value, and the business makes money at this moment in time, a disregard for quality over time would create an environment that pushes out builders that care. And when you have people building product that don't care, it's hard to argue they'd care for the customer either. The slippery slope argument, I know. But "how you do anything is how you do everything."

That said, the surface area for any product is huge. It makes sense to prioritize paper cuts that have ROI. Otherwise, you'd never ship. And it is fundamentally true that customers buy and use because it gets their job-to-be-done finished, despite the paper cuts they'd have to wade through.

But like our most closely-held ideals, we may never reach them, but it doesn't mean we should stop trying entirely. Besides, once they find an alternative, or a competitor becomes viable, they'll switch. Paper cuts don't matter, until they do. It's a debt of another kind, where the piper will always come knocking eventually.