It depends but in general I'd disagree. If the small balls of mud have all kinds of implicit dependencies, but you have to find them by searching across codebas

It depends but in general I'd disagree. If the small balls of mud have all kinds of implicit dependencies, but you have to find them by searching across codebases (and languages) -- does that sound easier than finding them all in the same codebase and language? Overall, its comparing bad design to bad design. I think the main argument I'd make here is, micro-services doesn't actually solve the big ball of mud problem, it solves a completely different problem.