The Slashdot comments are pretty illustrative, I think.
https://developers.slashdot.org/story/25/03/28/2148205/doge-to-rewrite-ssa-codebase-in-months
Boingboing has taken a downturn in recent years IMHO (at least their comment section surely did - but now that they are hidden behind a paywall, I no longer see the comments, so maybe they are on the upswing again… :) ). Anyway, they had a good analogy of the Chesteron’s Fence:
“There exists … let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, ‘I don’t see the use of this; let us clear it away.’ To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: ‘If you don’t see the use of it, I certainly won’t let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it.’”
– Chesterton, G. K. (1929) in The Thing
More insights from people that actually know a thing or two (not s00perl33t teenagers, obviously):
