in reply to
Re^3: Legacy Code: "Dominoes = Bad"
in thread Legacy Code: "Dominoes = Bad"
Your argument seems to support the claim that "bad things have been done in the name of maintainability" than argue Utilitarians claim that "maintainability saves effort in the long run".
Perhaps you're not allowing for the possibility that writing maintainable code can be done well. It can be done without significant increase in initial effort. For example using moose can both improve maintainability (adding attributes is easy, inheritance is easy), and it can save effort.