Pillar locked/empty UX reverted to rich blurred-preview pattern (portfolio as base)

Decision

Tax + Expense locked/empty surfaces revert from the 2026-06-12 (r2) minimal "single Unlock card" to the rich blurred-preview pattern that portfolio-locked.html already used. Empty-state pages mirror portfolio-empty.html's structure. Wireframes renamed for consistency: expense.html → expense-locked.html, portfolio.html → portfolio-locked.html.

Why

The 2026-06-12 (r2) sweep favoured signal-to-noise but removed the "what you're missing" preview that drives conversion. Portfolio kept the blurred-preview pattern and remains the most informative locked surface. Aligning Tax + Expense to that pattern makes the locked-state value proposition consistent across pillars — concrete previews of regime comparison, deductions waterfall, KPI strip, and cashflow chart, each with its own "Unlock [feature] →" overlay CTA.

Impact

• Reverses the 2026-06-12 (r2) minimisation for Tax surfaces — see 2026-06-12-r2-second-pass-simplification (now superseded for the locked/empty rows).
• Surfaces updated: tax-empty, tax-locked, expense-unlocked (and the new expense-locked/expense-empty variants), portfolio-unlocked-strong (portfolio-locked.html rename).
• Empty-state structure: title + "no data yet" chip + zinc status banner + dashed-border placeholder section grid + right aside ("What [pillar] will surface" + "How to get started").
• Locked-state structure: blurred-preview section grid + emerald status banner + right aside ("What unlocks" + "Why pay") + per-section overlay CTAs.
• Inbound references updated across 80 wireframes for the expense.html and portfolio.html renames.
• pillar-tax, pillar-expense, pillar-portfolio entities now share the same locked/empty pattern.

Status

Active.

Sources

• .context/wiki/decisions/* § "2026-06-26 — pillar locked/empty UX reverted to rich blurred-preview pattern (portfolio as base)"