That's the thing that always bugs me, the vast majority of the items that I end up with on the todo list after a review would cost $0 or very little to get right.
Super frustrating. And you can't even rely on things staying fixed either, you have to review periodically or it will be back to square #1 within the year.
> the vast majority of the items that I end up with on the todo list after a review would cost $0 or very little to get right
Agreed, and I drive people crazy with my focus on those things. Thorough design and implementation (including testing) up front cost far less than correcting problems later, and they don't add the enormous cost of downtime and other failures.
But ... I've found that human beings, even serious professionals, have a capacity limit for details, and it's not very high; and if it's for an over-the-horizon risk, attention is very limited. That is my biggest constraint, editing down the details, organizing them, automating them, and making trade-offs to reduce them to a point where others don't throw up their hands. Also, it's hard to get the budget for that up front investment in what looks to others like obsessiveness (it's not; it's carefully considered ROI).
So when you show up for your review (I don't know exactly what you do, but I have an impression), 1,000 details might have been addressed but 50 overlooked. or 1,050 details might have been implemented but there was no capacity for the next 100 - resources ran out, something else came up, etc.
Super frustrating. And you can't even rely on things staying fixed either, you have to review periodically or it will be back to square #1 within the year.