Sometimes it's useful to try on a provocative, and possibly untrue, assertion for size and see if it stretches our thinking.

Here's one: "The things that make a B2B software product beautiful are precisely what make it not possible to be broadly successful in the enterprise segment"

The thing that made me think this is I can't think of a B2B software example that is unambiguously beautiful/high-quality (there are some candidates but they all have big caveats). That made me wonder if maybe it's something more fundamental.

Here's a sketch of what that fundamental thing might be.

Enterprise B2B business models require stickiness for the CAC/LTV math to work.

Stickiness requires customizability (the ability for a customer to glue themselves to a product.)

Products that are so opinionated / beautiful: "We've thought long and hard about this, and this is the way to do this" that we either don't give any space for users to customize (where we get it right) or, more commonly especially for large customers, we make our solution non-viable for customers with different needs.

I imagine large users saying: "That's cute that you think you found a one-size-fits-all solution for everyone. Our business is complicated and large and we know it better than anyone, your 'we know better than you' is hubris."

To be viable as a business, B2B products need to be sticky.

To be viable for large customers, a B2B product needs to be customizable.

Beautiful things are rarely customizable, unless they are beautifully customizable (e.g. Lego's beautiful dot connector system).

This customizability in B2B products creates a space... no, a fundamental requirement! ... for pro serve, implementation hand-holding, channel partners, and ecosystems of solutions.

This ecosystem makes the core B2B product so much more resilient; wrapped in multiple layers of self-reinforcing and accelerating pace layers of the ecosystem.

But to do this, you must give up control. You must give up control to the user to customize, including a potentially dizzying array of options.

You need to give up control to the ecosystem, to be able to build a viable business helping customers customize and implement your thing.

To have an ecosystem, you need to create more value than you capture--creating the conditions where partners can build a sustainable and valuable business adjacent to you.

If you don't seem particularly willing to give up that value to others, that means you can't have an ecosystem sprout up around you.