@ndevenish I have complex thoughts.

The joke we tell is that most of the industry is -1x to -10x developers.

My less joke-y answer is that most of the industry moves you towards products that are filled with Tech Debt. Like, the median programmer will build a project that is in a stable equilibrium of Suck, and there are no clear pathways to refactor that will survive business pressure.

The right-hand side builds things that vary in quality wildly, but they're not prima facie terrible.