- Generally time spent writing documentation is time not spent delivering code.

- Generally time spent commenting code is time not spent delivering code.

- Generally time spent diagramming on a white board is time not spent delivering code.

- Generally time spent writing specs is time not spent delivering code.

Yet, doing all of these are actually extremely important. How much importance you give each one of them is up to you that's for sure.

So, "Generally, time spent twiddling with the repo is time not spent delivering code", is true, it's nonetheless important, and, this statement disregards the fact that "twiddling" usually only takes a few minutes.