VW did think that. That’s why the 140 and the 180 are basically the same engine block, with the 180 having a dual turbo, different injectors and the only aluminum EGR cooler in the family of 2.0 variants of the same engine with different horsepower. The lower hp engines are essentially detuned versions for marketing reasons.
Disclaimer: I am not promoting remaps, that’s for you to research and decide.However, the 199/204/199 seems to be a VW remap of the 180, as far as I can tell, so VW doesn’t seem to be worried about durability when increasing hp with this engine block shared with the 140.