"Interesting, this is a trap that I've seen multiple senior hires fall into."

Definetly it's a trap. If you are a purist it's nigh impossible. But if you ruthlessly 80/20 it most stakeholders will be pleasantly surprised.

I have no clue why I end up in these situations but I sure do like them.

I do realize this would sound more of a perpetual "not invented here syndrome" but technical implementation of modeling aspects for 3D and computational geometry is such a scarce talent you actually get to do novel stuff for your business.

The last time this happened I designed & implemented the core modeling architecture and led the implementation effort for our new map feature[0]

[0] See section "Stunning new building facades add practical value" in https://www.mapbox.com/blog/detailed-architecture-and-new-de...