FWIW, the book Design Rules: The Power of Modularity systematically explores the tradeoffs.
https://www.amazon.com/Design-Rules-Vol-Power-Modularity/dp/...
Written by two economists, it's the only prescriptive definition of architecture that I've managed to find. Influenced me deeply.
I like the explanation and rationale given in Design Rules https://www.amazon.com/Design-Rules-Vol-Power-Modularity/dp/..., though there's plenty of others.
You might like the book Design Rules: The Power of Modularity. https://www.amazon.com/Design-Rules-Vol-Power-Modularity/dp/...
I'm going to ponder how to design the game artifacts.
IIRC, I think first read the phrase "complexity catastrophe" in the book Design Rules: The Power of Modularity. Per the authors, it's when a system becomes so complex (interdependent) that the cost of any further changes far outweigh the expected benefit.
https://www.amazon.com/Design-Rules-Vol-Power-Modularity/dp/...
https://www.amazon.com/Design-Rules-Vol-Power-Modularity/dp/...
Formal definitions for interfaces and so forth. Completely changed my mental model for my work.
Paraphrasing from book (from memory): "Architecture" is the set of visible design choices.
Design Rules is to software methodology what Diffusion of Innovations is to product development.
There is some overlap between Design Rules and Diffusion of Innovations, of course. They're compliments.