Difference between ほど and かぎり

Question

I read the following sentence in an exercise:

私たちの目標は競争に打ち勝つことでもなければお金を儲けることでもありません。可能な____すごい製品を作ることだ。

A. あまり、B. ほど、C. はず、D. かぎり

The correct answer was D, but I picked B.

I understand the sentence as:

Our goal is neither to beat competition, nor to earn money. It is to craft products as great as possible.

To me, both ほど and かぎり mean "to the extent of ~", but かぎり, due to 限る, feels to me somewhat negative, like a limitation. But if I understand this sentence correctly, I suppose my understanding of ほどand かぎり is wrong.

Why is かぎり the right answer here?

In addition, what is the meaning of でもなければ in 競争を打ち勝つことでもなければ? I'd say it literally means "if it was not to beat competition", but is it right to translate it as "is neither to beat competition, nor..."?

Answer 1

They're so different that I've never thought those two words same. I think you're fooled by the English definition because "to the extent" can certainly cover both use cases to some extent. What they really mean are:

• ほど "level" → ～ほど "to the (enough) level that — / according to how much —"
• かぎり "limit" → ～かぎり "to the (maximum) limit that —"

So,

目に見えるほどきれいにした "cleaned up enough that I can see (= appreciably)"
目に見えるかぎりきれいにした "cleaned up wherever I can see"

生きるほど恋をする "the more you live, the more you [fall in] love" (or alternatively) "you [fall in] love so [deep that it makes] you live"
生きるかぎり恋をする "you love as long as you live"

Back to your question:

可能なかぎりすごい製品を作る
= "make products wonderful[ly] to the maximum of what we can" = as wonderful as possible

... and 可能なほど doesn't usually make sense by its own, but you can say, for example:

24時間稼動が可能なほどすごい製品を作る make such excellent products that they can run 24 hours