Build software using contractors.

Use software to make game using contractors.

Finish game, end contracts with contractors.

Company now has literally no-one on payroll who still knows how to do anything with their "in-house" tools.

Fuck everything up for years, and get literally nothing done, because you keep trying to finish things with a revolving door of contractors who all have to learn to use your in-house crap made by other contractors who aren't around to answer questions or update documentation.

Switch to UE5 because all the contractors already know how to use it, as you won't consider hiring actual employees again.

my understanding from a tech artist friend was that simple things like adding a new shader would take a day to make it into their continuous integration builds, making it ridiculous compared to unity/unreal/etc. this was 2019-ish

I think a lot of high profile people left 343, it was probably the ones that were experts in using it.

slipspace was just an iteration of blam with a marketing name slapped on top, and cost them dearly in any case :/