This is genius. I skimmed it the first time, and it took me a good 30 minutes to appreciate the wide applicability of your insight.

A whole family of problems across domains : supply chains, manufacturing lines, AI pipelines, resilient software, physical security, etc. come down to effective state limitation.

In my day job, the vast bulk of my arguments with PMs come down to a lack of planning allocation for post-launch code cleanup. I haven't been able to find a succinct articulation for the utility of 'code cleanup' to a wider audience. 'State-limitation' fits nicely. Exactly the concept I was looking for.

It draws from the better known 'less-is-more' adage, but adds a lot of implicit detail to the generic (almost cliche) adage.