From a tech perspective, you may end up half way through the project before you realise that the technology you’re using is capable of doing what you want in a far more efficient, safe, ‘standard’ way.

From a UI perspective, it can mean the difference between a ‘great’ product and a ‘dog’ product, as far as the end user is concerned. An example of this would be when I first started writing Windows apps after writing ‘normal’ DOS based apps. It was hard, hard work trying to ‘fit’ my DOS way of thinking into the new graphical message-based environment. You have to play around with it and see what works and what doesn’t. I did most of this in my spare time so was not paid to play.

Exactly the same process applies when porting a win app to iPhone, as Mike mentioned. You just can’t do it with the same mindset; you have to bend your mindset to fit in with the platform.

So yes, I agree this is worthwhile. It needs to be constrained however. It’s generally not so good to pay people full-time to produce no income, in the long term.