This argument drives me nuts. A simple OOP environment can be quite easy to grasp and (mis)use. Following all the golden rules and principles that SOLID et al call for, are comparabily hard to internalize. A rookie can only fail and has to collect, choose and study all the wisdom over the years until he becomes a master. To that point he will create OO code that will break untold rules. Ruling the majority of OO code out there as "bad" is hubris and ignores reality. It is easy to do OOP wrong and hard to get it right. This imbalance is proof enough for me that we don't know what we are doing, just justifing. (Yes this may apply to other paradigms as well)