libfreetype is an example of a great library, clean and well documented...
beautiful coding isn't a myth, it actually works... write code like poetry and it pays off 10 fold... less errors, easier to reason about, malleable... the benefits are extreme... try to actually experience something before making unfounded claims... i've been writing beautiful for over a decade now... once you realize code is written once and read 100 times, you'll come to the realization of doing it clean and right the first time pays of in the future, which means less work and bullshit...