I'll always remember one instructor I had for the way he hinted at over designing. He would tell stories like how much the US spent to design an ink pen that would work in zero gravity while the Russians just took a box of pencils into space.
Back then, I think red was the only light emitting diode that was cost effective to make and he said that the Japanese figured that could put a cheap colored plastic cap over the diode to change the color...I do not know if any of that was true, but he got his point across to me anyway.