Choosing a database is less important than choosing the boundaries and invariants of the model. Distributor networks make that visible because hierarchy, ownership and access evolve at different speeds.
Model the access path
Start from the questions each role must answer. Tenant and distributor identifiers belong on the documents used by common authorization and reporting paths; relationships that change independently should remain explicit.
Embed with a limit
Embed values that are read together and have a predictable size. Reference entities with their own lifecycle or unbounded growth. The decision is about update behavior, not a blanket preference for denormalization.
Plan the next constraint
Compound indexes, tenant-aware queries and audit history matter early. Sharding does not. Track document growth and query shape so scale work is triggered by evidence rather than architecture anxiety.
Architecture becomes useful when its trade-offs are visible to the product—not just to the engineering team.