Comment by arthurofbabylon

This is profound. What is possible serves as an anchor in our assessment of what actually took place.

This premature adjustment of judging criteria is probably not so useful, obfuscating the actual outcome. In this case, it would be easy for the author to be ashamed of such "wasted" effort, when the more appropriate reaction would be appreciation for the lessons learned. And the lessons learned on a project like this are immense.