The repetition of "this is different from code" strikes me as odd.

The way I see it, it's identical to code, it just involves more moving parts.

> If two experts designed the same system, you would see two different designs, beautiful and aesthetic in their own way and both as “correct” as the other (and with the accompanying justifications to support them).

That is nonsense. Systems can be optimally designed too, just like code. Even if you have two systems that both meet the requirements for features, performance, reliability, and cost, one is usually objectively better by surpassing the requirements more than the other.

Would you like solution A that is identical to solution B in every way, but can be run with half the hardware, or do you want solution B? Of course you would want solution A.