A key stakeholder of our product is constantly pushing us to make our ui more excel like.
As a product we are happy to oblige, but the cynic in me just wonders why they don't just use excel and close the loop on their csv import / export workflow
Do not give them ideas, on the contrary, give'em more rope. And when the time comes and they come with the idea themselves present yourself as the unique person that can do the migration to Excel, since meanwhile the codebase would be in millions of lines of code and you're the only one left to understand it. And that's your moment to ask for the big bucks as a contractor.
Always remember the golden rule of life: stupidity and intelligence must be paid (their stupidity and hopefully your intelligence).
As a product we are happy to oblige, but the cynic in me just wonders why they don't just use excel and close the loop on their csv import / export workflow