Prototypes and Production by Jeremy Keith

Was just doing something similar and feel the same way. When building a prototype, you throw so many best practices to the wind:

Whereas I would think long and hard about the performance impacts of third-party libraries and frameworks on a public project, I won’t give it a second thought when it comes to a prototype. Throw all the JavaScript frameworks and CSS libraries you want at it (although I would argue that in-browser technologies like CSS Grid have made CSS libraries like Bootstrap less necessary, even for prototyping).

Remember, however, that prototypes quite often gain their utility through their ability to be like a piece of paper: you sketch out your ideas quickly with low friction, you learn what you don’t want, then you throw it away.

Build prototypes to test ideas, designs, interactions, and interfaces…and then throw the code away. The value of a prototype is in answering questions and testing hypotheses. Don’t fall for the sunk cost fallacy when it’s time to switch over into production mode.