I feel very conflicted about this topic. My DD1 was born after a long & extremely horrible induction, @ supposedly 42 weeks (by my dates 42 +4). Her head circumference was quite large & i had pretty bad tearing, at the time someone made a comment about her skull being less flexible (?). She had the cord twice around her neck, an arm and a leg. She was born with no fluff, none of the greasy stuff, She weighed less than her head size & length would suggest - so I guess those are all signs that she was over cooked. The placenta was on its last legs & when they broke the membrane no fluid came out (!!!). When she was finally born (which was kind of a rush because she was pretty distressed by then) her first apgar was low, and she was sleepy for a long time. She now has a number of attentional deficits & I wonder sometimes what degree of oxygen deprivation she had at that time.

The actual induction was poorly managed & I was quite traumatized by the experience. But here's the thing (and why I feel conflicted) - I cannot for the life of me understand how I could have birthed her 'naturally' any further past that date. I had been having strong runs of extremely painful contractions for 5 weeks by that point, I'd done all the walking, pineapple eating, nipple tweaking sex possible & there was no signs of my cervix budging. I was big on reiki, meditation, visualization, etc - so it's not like I was sitting on a big psychological block either. And given how she had already started to shrink & dry out, and the tattered state of the placenta, how much longer would have been safe? I don't think I really understood how long the pregnancy was and what impact that had until I had DD2 who was born by CS after 37 weeks, who was chubby and furry and in proportion and full of life and vigour. So while I'm not a fan of early induction, my own experience is that there is a point in the gestation after which things get a whole lot more difficult for both mother & baby.

ETA
However that point is extremely difficult to assess, partly because there is such a wide variation in 'normal' gestation. I know women who were induced earlier & more gently than I was and who had pretty decent birth experiences. On the other hand I also know of at least one home birthing mumma who happily went past that date & birthed a not-overcooked-at-all baby peacefully and without intervention. But there are also women whose babies die at the end of long pregnancies. Certainly, better analysis of more detailed statistics might shed light on where the sweet spot lies between the benefits of waiting versus the risks - but I'm not sure that we even have the right science to measure it with any accuracy. I suspect there are specific bio markers that haven't been identified yet. Until that happens, it remains guess work, and it really comes down to the care provider's general level of compassion & involvement of women in decision making that makes the most difference.