It's the engineer's job to do what the boss tells him, and, at times, to lay out options, including tradeoffs. If the boss decides he wants the guy to use component XXX even though it's better in one or many ways, to use YYY, then he probably should tell the boss, but if the boss then still insists on using XXX, it's on the boss and not on the engineer.

If the engineer doesn't like that, then he should resign and go somewhere else, perhaps where the boss will do what the lowly engineer thinks he should.

If I were the boss, and my subordinate didn't want to do what I needed him to do, I'd certainly allow him to express his concerns. However, if I knew that we were going to close our doors in three months, or sell out, or heaven-knows-what-else that's not the sort of thing one would tell subordinates until the time is right, I wouldn't feel obliged to tell the engineer why I made my choice, though I would absolutely expect him to do what I told him I wanted.

BTW, if he chooses his input resistors properly, the O/P probably can make this circuit, of which he's apparently building exactly one, function just fine without either load capacitors or Schmidt-triggers. The input capacitance of 4000-series inputs is not negligible, and if the pullup is large, and the series resistor appropriately chosen, the combination will not only debounce the contacts but will prevent excessive excursion of voltage at the inputs. I've occasionally used that sort of arrangement in front-panel interfaces with complete satisfaction.

RE