I’m working on a project where I have a few related bugs that are fairly minor in terms of loss of functionality. They are basically minor but annoying aesthetic problems, and based on loss of functionality should be fixed eventually, but not as a top priority. However, these bugs are caused by a fundamental, baked-in design flaw that would be nightmarish to correct.
When faced with bugs that are functionally minor, but caused by baked-in design flaws, is it generally better to treat them as showstoppers to avoid painting yourself further into a corner, or treat them as low-priority bugs, continue with functionally more important stuff and hope that you’ll figure out a way around them later, when the project is more mature and fixes for minor bugs are given priority?
If the issues are minor in terms of functionality loss, and that functionality loss is not relevant in the context of the software solution being developed, I’d say you should try to check how limiting it can be to other future functionalities, and if it will not have implications within sight, go forth.
I say this because typically, when you finish a software project, no matter how small and nicely conceived, you will typically have a maturity at the end that will allow you to realize flaws and changes that you could have made in the design. Basically, if at the end you had to start it again, you would always do it differently.