> There are a lot of things between aesthetics and domain
   > knowledge that are audit-able.

I don't disagree with you. The pertinent question is 'does anyone care'?

   > A lot of code bases you can walk into and see a million
   > n+1 queries right away and the architectural patterns
   > that lead to them. Another canary is the test
   > complexity that reveals various anti-patterns like
   > active record. Another is correct IOC usage, a lot of
   > code bases will use it for creating POCO objects for
   > example. These are all very common and quickly
   > discoverable.

Again, I don't disagree. You're right, possibly even corrrect. But we're talking business plans yes? So feel free to buy that expensive suit (or hire a beard) and see if you can explain these issues and why they matter to the people with the money.

"If dogs could talk, perhaps we would find it as hard to get along with them as we do with people."