The verdict, in bands

Comparing a single pessimistic ceiling against a single pessimistic floor would refuse almost everybody, so the comparison is banded. Comfortably above the range is viable; inside it is marginal and worth a test before commitment; below it is unviable, and no amount of clever optimisation closes that gap.

An unviable verdict produced by arithmetic is final. Nothing further in the system is permitted to move a channel off it — not the strategist, not the language model, not a persuasive prompt.