this debate reminds of kitchen appliances. what makes an appliance a burden or not is how much cognitive load is takes (space taken, where is it stored, how to take apart and clean, how to use, etc..)

and how much value it provides. (time saved, quality produced, aesthetics)

sometimes it's "debt" when it costs more than it's value produced but this is can be highly dependent on how often it's used. (space taken is a large fixed cost)

with code, the space is "infinite" so there's a lot of clutter like "pineapple corer for those with a diameter between 5cm and 10m, corer for those with exactly 12cm, bannana nutella injector, etc.."

combine this tension with a changing environment and output requirements (one week steakhouse, next is chinese food, etc...) and everything starts to feel like a pile of crap

going "smaller" alleviates this problem b/c a lot of specialized tools are designed for scale. one steak and one chow mein doesn't justify a salamander broiler or a wok