Yea the delta is important. And the mythical man month also counts ramp up time and not people just being generally incompetent.

Been through lots of engineers that can’t make it past ramp up, where everything is unpossible. Had many pms that couldn’t speak past the problem to save their lives so I feel that. But let’s be clear if there is a way forward don’t obscure the value. Don’t talk down. I work with post docs, principal engineers etc and they seem to be able to break down the problem, meanwhile lower level techs keep up with this shit.