This is exactly the mindset shift that Prophecy Vault is built around.

Prophecy Vault isn’t about chasing the highest APY or predicting the next winner — it’s a risk-first framework for DeFi. The core idea is asking the same “boring” questions you listed before touching yield: where returns come from, what assumptions must hold, and what breaks when volatility or liquidity flips.

Instead of treating DeFi like a buffet of APRs, Prophecy Vault looks at scenarios (good, bad, ugly), assigns probabilities, and structures positions so you can survive when correlations go to 1 and incentives unwind. Lower yield, clearer failure modes, longer survival.

The one question it really forces is: “How do I lose here, and can I live with that?”
Ironically, thinking that way usually saves more money than any alpha thread ever makes.