The GP is referring to the political costs of changing bad code, not the technical challenges which are almost always manageable by any experienced programmer. Egos, however.
In part to maintain sanity in a toxic environment, and in part because I knew they just accepted it if it was handed to them.
https://yosefk.com/blog/people-can-read-their-managers-mind....
Either you’re successful AND your managers have an epiphany that you were right and they were wrong, or you fail and your managers will punish you for ignoring their instructions. It’s a risky strategy for an employee.