As engineers, we sometimes fall into the trap of over-engineering. A Schema Registry comes with an operational cost. You probably don't need it if:

1. Tight Coupling: If you have one producer and one consumer managed by the same team in the same repo, just coordinate the deployment.

2. Prototyping Phase: If you are iterating every hour and the data model is highly volatile, strict validation will only slow you down.

3. Unstructured Data: If you are moving binary blobs, compressed files, or encrypted payloads, there is nothing to validate.

Engineering is about choosing the right trade-offs, not about using every tool available.

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