Being a "failure" means it fails to meet its success criteria.
If you claim 10x and deliver 3x, that is a failure. The 3x may still be impressive or a gamechanger or ..., but it still falls short of its promises.
If you claim 10x and deliver 3x, that is a failure. The 3x may still be impressive or a gamechanger or ..., but it still falls short of its promises.
Pay me 8x to get 10x, great. Pay me 8x to get 3x, nope.
There is increase in (not only perceived) value _somewhere_ - IMO depends on the organizational culture. At my work I found going over 100$ on OpenAI/Anthropic's API pricing does not produce any meaningful additional output. It might be much different in different companies.