"No, it's less effort than that"

The only magic wand in software development is to simplify requirements. The requirements are always wrong: too broad, too vague, based on invalid assumptions

The real genius is to propose a simplified solution, by discarding some assumptions. This is the best and only way to shrink the schedule

This is why Professional Communications is so critical for software developers, and exactly why your manager absolutely does not want you to have such skills: you'll be able to explain why their requests are manipulative, unrealistic, and frankly pointy haired wishful nonsense.

Your workplace may be toxic. My manager celebrates simplification and cost reduction when it solves business problems.

Completely different topic. I'm not even referencing "my workplace", I'm talking our entire industry.

Please don't generalise or you wipe out the occasional good that does exist.

Now seriously, my comment is a call for people to acquire professional communication skills, because they are extremely useful when negotiating work in far too many areas to count. Such advice getting down voted indicates how little value quality communications has within the software developer community - to the industry's demise. Communications are everything, and if you don't have good communication skills you get overlooked, abused, and misunderstood... leading to career frustration, stagnation, and burnout.