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One of our engineers, who was a committed pacifist,... objected, saying he could not in good conscience work on a project involving munitions...He obviously lost that battle,

Yet if it was a matter of working on his sabbath then he would have won.

The System has power to crush. The wise person gets out of the way of the crusher, and lives to fight another day, in a battle that can be won.

Sometimes, but thank God for those who fought and won, while sometimes righteousness as well as the contrasting the nature of the System needs to be more fully exposed as being, and that is history. The NT church was built upon such. But which hill to die on is a matter of what God states, and conscience.

The past 2000 years have many examples of different ways Christians have dealt with conflicts between their faithand The System.

Renounce their faith, in a craven (and often futile) effort to avoid punishment.
Maintain their faith, but go into hiding to avoid punishment (also often futile).
Maintain their faith, stand up to The System in a losing situation, becoming martyrs.
Maintain their faith, fight The System and prevail, changing The System for the better, becoming victors.

Martyrs provide spiritual inspiration, and win the approval of God, but generally do not change The System. Victors have the greater effect on The System, and as far as I can tell, also win the approval of God.

I respect the martyrs because they maintained their faith in the face of evil, but I also praise the victors because they triumphed over evil. And that matters.