Andrew, you also missed one of the really big points of the six week build cycle. Out in the real world we face deadlines every day. Good engineering isn't always building and testing to the "Nth" degree. More times than not, it's getting the job done in adverse, some might say hostile, conditions.
It means keeping a cool head and coming up with the best solution that can be accomplished within the time and resources that the situation allows. The engineers of Mission Control didn't get extra time to save the lives of the Apollo 13 crew. You work with what you're dealt.
