“The red box is a band-aid for a broken login process.”

Isn’t it typical to allow a user to view certain information without having to login and if the user chooses to engage at a deeper level, prompt for login?

The problem I see is that the “flow” is broken by taking the user to a different context (in this case, the login page)
which is my solution to your problem question
“As someone who loves simplicity, how can I advocate the additional time to get a better solution?”

Simplicity is all about creating and maintaining the “Flow”.

So from a developer’s perspective,
time and effort may be the factors for simplicity as in
“It is a one line change in the code.”
whereas,
from a user’s perspective, being able to engage with the content, experience different pages/sections of the site seamlessly and getting what he/she wants quickly would count towards simplicity. The result being more sales, more comments, loyalty etc.

Hence, it is not really “extra work” to make this happen but is “the actual work” required.

I tried to add a new word to the popular urban dictionary (wantrepreneur) and after 4 attempts, I left the site.

They asked for my name and location. However, they said my name was all ready being used. So I used my middle name, no luck. I used a nick name, still no luck. I made up a name, no luck!

If they wanted me to create a unique user ID, why not just say so? And if I am being asked to do that, make it easy for me to know if the username is available (like real time checking or suggestions of available names).

Perfect example of a site not doing things right.

Like user interfaces, I deal with the same issue inside client companies with their employee-facing processes. From getting transactions authorized to on-boarding a new employee or the annual budgeting processes – setting a repeatable processes of any type in motion usually has a series of ludicrious steps (a likely result of excessive navel-gazing).

The answer is rarely another form to supplement the stack, or requiring your employees (users) to learn every nuance of your process. Inspiring is that rare company that is as concerned about employee user experience as much as they are about customer service.

But for most situations, it’s what’s simpler for the end user that matters.