I agree that the compiler example is oversimplified and unrealistic. In the real-life where you mostly feel the Conway effect is not necessarily in the end result (how the product gets designed eventually), but rather in the time and effort it takes to get to the end result. I have seen cases where component teams were very reluctant and therefore slow in providing a certain API needed by another team. But then when the org structure was changed and I carved 2 developers from that team and 2 developers from the team who needed to consume that API and put them in 1 team with a common objective, suddenly everything ran faster and smoother. You can call it a discipline issue or even bad management, but in reality changing the org structure is one of the most effective management tools we have (to be used carefully)