The comment about confirming too many of my priors is because this kind of situation makes me nervous. It is so obvious to me that they should have done (list of other things) that the social, cultural, economic, and legal reasons they did what they did should probably dominate the discussion.
"Dude, you horked the tech in a way visible from space and it's turtles all the way down..." I expect they know. And will go right back to building a house on a floodplain until insurance renewals stop.