Don’t forget: Hiring remote contractors to “speed up” things. Dev will slow to 50% and meetings will double as you attempt unsuccessfully to teach them how to code.
If a key engineer leaves, you lose a _lot_ more than 2-300k.
In opportunity cost, you lose tens of millions, possibly.
What I haven’t seen work is (which is what I think you’re describing more specifically) bringing on new hires or contractors to a project in flight in an attempt to deliver it more quickly. That’s where we get into Mythical Man Month territory.