You say: > said no customer, ever and then: > witness that we all use compilers Well, strictly speaking, developers are also customers for programming tools

You say: > said no customer, ever and then: > witness that we all use compilers Well, strictly speaking, developers are also customers for programming tools' company, and there the tidiness of the code is important. I'm sure there are many other domains where writing your software well is actually encouraged by economic factors :)