@Michael Kolodner really respect your transparency in this article! Totally agree with everything you said.

One thing to add that is also important to BtE is the fact that only someone with platform experience will set things up for future success during greenfield implementations. Things like dedicated email addresses for Org Wide vs. Integration vs. Process Automation vs. Experience Cloud Welcome Email, using Permission Set + PS Groups instead and staying away from Profiles, enabling State and Country picklists, establishing report folder taxonomy, banning multi-select picklists....There are so many little things you can do from day 1 that will set you and your org up for future Salesforce bliss, but are only going to be done by someone with a ton of experience. 

No matter how good the implementation, every org using Salesforce needs to realize that ongoing maintenance and upkeep is required indefinitely, and that at least every 10 years there will need to be a "renovation". This is is true of any enterprise SaaS application (Hubspot, Blackbaud, Foundant, Bloomerang, Neon, Asana, etc.). Many organizations don't go into these decisions with the knowledge that the initial implementation is just the beginning. Creating a culture where tech stack upkeep is seen as an ongoing business cost, rather than an afterthought, is key for long-term sustainability. This mindset shift will be critical for nonprofits to thrive with their technology investments in 2024 and beyond.