I was probably there when they invented that term, LOL (I first heard it in the Ruby startup space years ago, I think). I still think it's meaningful, along with "design smell". Why? Because it speaks to coding as craft, not just as purely-rational engineering. The design of things matters, and yet, design is (mostly) "irrational"... just like smells.

It shoots itself in the foot, though- Smells don't really have a real consequence*; bad design does.

* actually, I just thought of one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_histocompatibility_compl...