A simple architecture should be able to carry this to 10x and even to 100x if you really want to push it.
Honestly the contractors I see in IT are usually the far opposite end: it works well enough that they’re happy and pay my bill and by the time it doesn’t work anymore I’ll be off to another gig, so who cares?
There are lots of clients that clearly set their expectations for contractors who they see as expensive necessary evil: they want you to deliver fast and now, they do not want to hear that bubble that it will take longer to deliver a robust system.