In rare cases a piece of software is so bad, that rewriting it makes sense, because it means you’ll save development resources in the long run, but in my experience that’s rarely the case.

The best developers write good clean code with low dependencies and tests for things that matter, most developers aren great developers though, and things can almost always be made better, even if they are.

So it’s really about time vs results. A good example is RPA, it’s some of the most simple code around, but it’s often very hard to get it to take over 100% of a process. Your developer spends a few days to take over 80% of a manual process, but the last 20% would take your developer months of small adjustments.

That’s often not worth it, and refactoring is often the same.

If the system isn’t slow, and you can still add new features to it without breaking anything, then it’s not worth a refactor.

This doesn’t just apply to developers by the way, I manage a lot of different types of people, but they are all resources that I need to fit within my budget to meet the goals given to me by my management, who in term see me as a resource to meet their goals. We’re all cogs in the machine.

Had a client where the employees where stored in a table called "resources". Also felt very much like a resource there..