I appreciate your comment.

I didn't say that technical excellence doesn't matter. I said it needs to be not the _only_ measure. As for easy to measure impact.... my experience is that "technical excellence" results in "more stuff got built" not actually clear positive impact.

I'd bet that in the orgs that were focused on technical excellence the other work was getting done but being ignored. Which means you probably weren't one of the people being forced to do it. Please tell me if I'm wrong.