Consider also the stakeholder who gets annoyed whenever the dev team wants to work on something that would take longer than a week to turn around, and limits the things they'll ask for to those estimated at a week. So bigger things can never get done at all, and you'll just be looking for a local maxima instead of having the chance to make more significant changes.
Sometimes it's worth it to prep and clean up as you go. Knowing when it's worth it and when it isn't is one thing that makes some devs more valuable long-term than others.
Consider also the stakeholder who gets annoyed whenever the dev team wants to work on something that would take longer than a week to turn around, and limits the things they'll ask for to those estimated at a week. So bigger things can never get done at all, and you'll just be looking for a local maxima instead of having the chance to make more significant changes.
Sometimes it's worth it to prep and clean up as you go. Knowing when it's worth it and when it isn't is one thing that makes some devs more valuable long-term than others.