That's an interesting concept: There's the theory, that I tend to believe, that any successful complex system was born as a simple system, then evolved by iteration, etc. (it's from a 1970s systems theorist, iirc). Trying to birth a complex system directly is almost inevitably a mess.

But does it apply to legislating? One drawback might be that political will and attention is fleeting; and interests become vested in a current state, blocking change; and it's now or not for another generation or so.