> And there are so many cases in both where scale beats unit quality
In human economics, scale and quality usually come together, not in competition.
But of course, you follow into military examples. Those are really not as clear cut as you put.
Stalin's quantity soon stopped being plentiful because of neglect. Roman military was strong because of advanced techniques and the willingness to throw the status-quo away if it stopped working, often winning even when outnumbered. German WWII tanks were a joke, incapable of working in any real situation.
And the economical one, on Chinese solar panels, I recommend you reevaluate their quality and manufacturing conditions.
In human economics scale and quality are most certainly in tension. Rolls Royce hand assembles their cars because it’s easier to guarantee quality when you have masters doing the work. Toyota on the other hand gets the cost down because it’s mostly automated with very mostly unskilled labor doing some work.
At some point you can refine scale where you also automate the quality issues away, but there’s always still that tension.
In human economics, scale and quality usually come together, not in competition.
But of course, you follow into military examples. Those are really not as clear cut as you put.
Stalin's quantity soon stopped being plentiful because of neglect. Roman military was strong because of advanced techniques and the willingness to throw the status-quo away if it stopped working, often winning even when outnumbered. German WWII tanks were a joke, incapable of working in any real situation.
And the economical one, on Chinese solar panels, I recommend you reevaluate their quality and manufacturing conditions.