I think a better analogy to use would be a very slow loading app.
Say your app takes 5 minutes to load the first page and 1 minute to switch between pages after that. Instead of blaming the developers, blame the users for expecting too much of the app. Personal responsibility and all that.
It's the users fault they are using the app during peak times. If they really needed access to X part of the app they should have done it before it got busy.
I used the app dev side because I think it's more illustrative. There are various teams with various competing priorities who have collectively developed a product which is horribly slow. No individual developer is at fault. Some are efficient with their code, and some are less so. But there is no architecture team or mature SDLC to handle cross cutting concerns or a foundational platform for everyone to build from. Everyone is free to do their own thing and write code the way they want use whatever standards they can find on Google. In that world, just telling the devs to write more efficient code is insufficient to correct the course. The systemic problems that have developed require systemic solutions. A blanket "just do better" has never been useful to anyone.
Say your app takes 5 minutes to load the first page and 1 minute to switch between pages after that. Instead of blaming the developers, blame the users for expecting too much of the app. Personal responsibility and all that.
It's the users fault they are using the app during peak times. If they really needed access to X part of the app they should have done it before it got busy.