* I've never had zero options for solving a problem. Ten years ago, I needed to build a customer login system on top of Shopify. (Like, before Shopify had one of its own.) I had enough room to do that in javascript, and it became an app called Gatekeeper. (Today's spiritual successor: Locksmith.)
* Whoever works on patterns at Shopify does a really, really good job. They think through things slowly and thoroughly, resulting in resource models that that are usually refined over time, instead of remodeled entirely. This is a good sign.
* This is a second bullet point to underscore the previous point about Shopify's pattern-making. I've been on this platform for a decade straight, and I don't deal with systemic inconsistency. I'm only here because Shopify is really, really good at patterns.
* This is a third pattern-related point to observe that Shopify usually defers solving a problem, rather than putting forward a fragile or brittle solution. (How long did it take for order editing to arrive?) By my reading, they'd rather take a while to land on and deliver a solution that will create a broader future, than more quickly deliver a solution that will limit the future.
* Yes, there are occasionally major/breaking API changes. Honestly, I love this. For me, it forces the whole system to stay engaged, and stay alive. Yes, I know the counter-arguments to this. :)
This is why I'm still here, ten years later. Yes, some things are short-term hard. But the things that are long-term important are all locked in.
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Also yeah, building and sustaining an app is work. This is part of why I made https://apps.shopify.com/mechanic. I love the Shopify platform, so, so much, and also I needed a way to solve really specific problems more quickly, and keep those solutions running more sustainably. So: platform within a platform. Lots of nested similarity here, in the way that Shopify thinks about solving problems and the way Mechanic thinks about solving problems within Shopify.