You're right, we should just expect free work from all developers. Because if you want to be a good developer, you have to meet this imaginary bar made up by other developers who want to show off about how "much extra work we do."
The point is the ask for the 737 Max wasn't a "plane that doesn't work." It was for a plane that does work. That was the deliverable. It wasn't met. That is not doing the bare minimum.
And this situation is different how? The CDC needed a website that works. Deloitte did not deliver a website that works. If it had, it would not have been abandoned, flushing $44M of work down the drain.
You could also apply this weaselly BS to Boeing. Their "ask", if there was one, was to make a plane that customers would buy and that would pass FAA review. Not "a plane that works".
No one's contract just says "make an X that works", even though that's what everyone wants. Because an X that works is hard to define. Fundamentally the system depends on honor and trust. Which is why we despise losers that just try to get paid and fuck the customer.
The point is the ask for the 737 Max wasn't a "plane that doesn't work." It was for a plane that does work. That was the deliverable. It wasn't met. That is not doing the bare minimum.