Those rules that were overridden were basically QA bikeshedding about variable names in something that has never changed before, and insisting on tacking on ref

Those rules that were overridden were basically QA bikeshedding about variable names in something that has never changed before, and insisting on tacking on refactoring while trying to put out fires. The engineer did their due diligence, wrote tests to make sure it had the desired behaviour, and got it done in minimal time. Clearing technical debt in old modules should be done, I agree, but not while trying to put out fires. It adds considerable risk to a change which should not have any impact except for the request.