That's a bit snarky.
I've been engineering software for a long time and I've never come across a code base (associated with a successful product) that was debt free.
I've been engineering software for a long time and I've never come across a code base (associated with a successful product) that was debt free.
This concept reminds me quite a bit of the "applications" I've seen floating around in big companies. They are creations of convenience, based on MS Office documents because there weren't any real programmers around. They may have been initially fine, but grow and grow until they are completely unwieldy. By that time they are critical path and mission critical, and nobody can handle the complexity.