I like this comment:
https://pointersgonewild.com/2018/02/18/minimalism-in-programming/#comment-5400
<< I’m also a minimalist. And I agree that, as a practical measure, minimising dependencies has a lot of value. However, once we get past Stockholm syndrome effects, it’s a tragedy. Why should building on others’ work so often be so much more effort than it’s worth? >>
Since civilization depends for its survival on people building on others' work, this right here seems Quite An Important Question which applies to much more than software.
OP was just regurgitating the XP-agile mantras of building from the bottom up. This always falls apart when you get too large, which is kind of what the reply is talking about. You can't build quality from crap. Not to say that, in the small, the original code is crap; it probably works quite well, but it crosses subject matter boundaries. The crossing of subject matter boundaries fights against the subject matter separation needed for in the large software quality.
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