Just like most of life, engineering is about making compromises. There are a lot of compromises in all of life. We can't have it all.
It is frustrating that we can't do that simple and straightforward thing.
In politics in a proper democratic republic, it often feels like nothing gets done. Of course, often that is entirely true but that system is working as intended. I think we often fail to understand how much conflicting interests we have all around us. I often feel like like would be simpler under a dictatorship. However, I know simpler isn't always better. While there is a lot of rent seeking in a market economy, it isn't enough to get rid of the market to fix this rent seeking.
Let's take the simple case of transit. We should automate as much as possible. Transit exists to provide a service. The fact that it provides well paying jobs is install to its mission. However, in practice...