Mechanism

Load-Bearing Design

Narrates itself as trade-off, optimization, the design couldn't avoid it.

“Why do I feel like I'm breaking so the system can keep running?”

You might be inside it if

Was someone expected to absorb a cost that the system could have absorbed?
Is the person absorbing it the least powerful person in the system?
Is there a version of the design that routes differently?
Would changing the routing require redesigning the system, or just a policy change?

Hard to see because the load landing on specific bodies is presented as an unavoidable consequence of the design, not a design choice.