You seem to be reading way more into my comment than was intended.
I'm just saying it's not cheaper to ignore technical debt. It's actually a bug somewhere in the operational budget or business plan.
If the system should run for thirty years on without an OS upgrade, design and budget for that up front. I promise that no one considered that when they configured a Windows XP box and threw it in a lab somewhere. And, hey, maybe that's OK in the short run. But there was no budget or business plan to replace those systems down the line either.
I'm just saying it's not cheaper to ignore technical debt. It's actually a bug somewhere in the operational budget or business plan.
If the system should run for thirty years on without an OS upgrade, design and budget for that up front. I promise that no one considered that when they configured a Windows XP box and threw it in a lab somewhere. And, hey, maybe that's OK in the short run. But there was no budget or business plan to replace those systems down the line either.