I, too, started leaving comments for myself and other future maintainers to explain why a bad decision or awkward solution was chosen at the time, and offering

I, too, started leaving comments for myself and other future maintainers to explain why a bad decision or awkward solution was chosen at the time, and offering the list of things I tried along with potential future improvements. Explaining the constraints under which the bad decision was made is important so that my future self can evaluate whether those constraints are still valid.