While I agree with you, this sounds like it could lead to a classic case of "that escalation worked, in the sense that it was heard".

Unless someone with decision-making power is going to be woken up at 4AM for a problem, they have very little incentive (intrinsic or extrinsic) to block a project on such nebulous claims as "Reducing dependencies" or "Less things on the critical path", if a business leader has come to them with a request.