Definition

The fail state where vendor exit costs exceed the value of switching. The operator is trapped inside the stack — cannot leave without paying more than staying is costing.

Explanation

This is the terminal state [Stack Drift] and [Vendor Capture] build toward when left unchecked. A stack that accumulated through addition and captured pitches, never audited against actual need, eventually reaches a point where the switching cost itself becomes the argument for staying — even when the stack is actively costing more than it delivers.

The operator caught in [Stack Lock] isn’t choosing the vendor relationship anymore; the sunk cost of exit is choosing it for them. The only way out is treating the exit cost as a one-time tax worth paying against the ongoing cost of staying trapped, which requires actually running the audit [Stack Drift] never got.