The RPI workflow (Research-Plan-Implement) is a forcing function for human review at the highest-leverage points. Most people waste review cycles on final output when the real value is reviewing *research* and *plans* before implementation starts.

Research phase: understand the ground truth. Produce a compacted artifact.
Plan phase: define exactly what gets built and why.
Implement phase: execute the plan. Don't re-research.

Bad research compounds into thousands of bad lines. Bad plans compound into hundreds. Catch it upstream.