A design system at MVP stage should be tight and opinionated. Five colours, two fonts, a defined spacing scale, and a small set of components. That is enough for almost every early product.
The mistake is treating early design systems like product surface area. They are infrastructure. They should be obvious to use and invisible to users.
Once the product matures, you can broaden the system. Until then, focus on consistency and pace. Faster shipping comes from fewer choices, not more components.
Tokens, primitives, and composition rules are worth investing in early. Variants, themes, and visual flourishes can wait.