There's also the problem of comparing apples and oranges. The lack of metrics is a problem. But the bigger problem is the interesting non-maintence-mode projec

There's also the problem of comparing apples and oranges. The lack of metrics is a problem. But the bigger problem is the interesting non-maintence-mode projects went from 0 to somewhere, or from 7 to 8 and a bit features' and that's a lot 'cooler'/'bottom-line demonstrable' than 'I made the thing break less often and less breakable and more understandable'. It also says something that Google isn't measuring itself very well, although this is one anecdotal data point, I'm sure it's not the only one with the 'defrag' reference, relocation/churn etc. etc. I also take issue with your documentation reference. The existing lack of documentation was probably caused by other Senior Software Engineers?