Besides, its not just about efficiency, but about scope and use of resources. In economic boom cycles there is more capital to play around with non-essential ideas. When that access to capital dries up, so does viability of keeping extra resources for things that are not essential.
Again, we are talking about how cutting people during regular operation absolutely would not make the team more efficient, not adding people to a project last minute.
This is absolutely not true.
This is one of the most well known writings on software. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mythical_Man-Month
Besides, its not just about efficiency, but about scope and use of resources. In economic boom cycles there is more capital to play around with non-essential ideas. When that access to capital dries up, so does viability of keeping extra resources for things that are not essential.
Again, we are talking about how cutting people during regular operation absolutely would not make the team more efficient, not adding people to a project last minute.