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this exactly. I expect they are paying below average wages, have huge churn of people looking for anything to do while the perfect job arises. Throw in some people new to the area who need a job now, some old contractors who have money and are looking for pocket money and more stability (who's CVs are amazing, they have the gift of the gab but get bored really really quickly and just don't care about the job) and that is a the instant recipe for churn and crap code.

...which indicates that they aren't necessarily wrong in their assessment that those things aren't important.

It makes me wish the OP had named the industry & market, though. Companies like these are ideal prey for entrepreneurs.

Agreed