Ah, that's an interesting perspective. Having written and supported websites in both Java and Ruby (plus some other languages), I think that your perspective is valid. Long term costs are worth considering. However, sometimes you can take a long term hit in order to deliver quickly.
> compared to the life of that webapp in all situations where that webapp is anything serious.
Actually there is a situation where the short term life of the webapp matters far more than the long term. That's when you are not sure if there is going to be a long term. This could be a startup, a spike to explore a new business model, or even just a prototype of an internal app.
In all those cases, delivering something that has value in a short time outweighs the value of something that might be more supportable/extensible in the long term.
> compared to the life of that webapp in all situations where that webapp is anything serious.
Actually there is a situation where the short term life of the webapp matters far more than the long term. That's when you are not sure if there is going to be a long term. This could be a startup, a spike to explore a new business model, or even just a prototype of an internal app.
In all those cases, delivering something that has value in a short time outweighs the value of something that might be more supportable/extensible in the long term.