> What they all have in common, in my experience, is that they make simple things very simple, but difficult things impossible.

Exactly that...

I used to work at a company where all kinds of tools where in place, from normally written Code to some web-based Oracle app and even an Access-like solution. The Oracle stuff turned out to hardly work remotely and being extremely inflexible. Eventually the company was split ("un-merged"), so the Oracle app wouldn't need any further customizations. A few months later from the department that used this Access-like solution the lead was fired.

On the other hand much of the properly engineered code survived several mergers and acquisitions.