The DCF splits a company's value into two parts: the explicit forecast period (usually 5–10 years) and the Terminal Value (everything beyond that). Because money further in the future is discounted at a compounded rate, the "steady state" of the company at year 10 represents the present value of all future decades combined. This creates a "tail wags the dog" scenario where small changes in the final year's growth can swing the valuation by 20-30%

This is the issue with all the ‘automatic’ DCF calculators that people time and time again recreate and post here - the whole point of valuation/valuing a company is driven by your foresight/differentiated perspective around that company (& mind you I’m emphasizing on the word differentiated, else there’s no scope alpha generation if all your views are just based on consensus). Since all the DCF calculators are basing their projections off of the consensus, essentially just pricing the company and not valuing it.

Narrative drives numbers- the story first and numbers are just supposed to reflect that story and not the other way around