My grade is F — is my store doomed?

No, but you’re in “stop building features, fix foundations” territory. I’ve cleaned up 40+ stores in F-grade state since 2017; every single one was recoverable. The pattern:

1. Week 1: ticket every weight-3 critical fail. Apply the missing security patch, enforce 2FA, set up daily backup, fix FPC. These are mechanical fixes, not architectural rebuilds. ~$2k–$8k of dev time.
2. Week 2–4: work through weight-2 highs in priority order. Indexer mode, slow-query monitoring, Companies feature if doing B2B. ~$5k–$15k.
3. Week 4–8: book a paid 3-day deep audit ($3k–$5k) so an external senior takes a fresh look at custom-module security, B2B data integrity, ERP handshake. Fixes from the audit go on the next quarter’s roadmap.
4. Week 8 onwards: retake the in-page checklist monthly, watch the grade climb. F → D is usually 30 days; D → B is usually another 60.

What kills F-grade stores isn’t the F itself; it’s denial. If you’ve scored F honestly, you’re already past the hardest step.