In this case I can assure you that these "few lines of code" were much easier to understand, and more correct than the code that was being replaced. Basically,

In this case I can assure you that these "few lines of code" were much easier to understand, and more correct than the code that was being replaced. Basically, someone was trying to fix an IO error that they did not understand by writing a complex retry mechanism, even though the system already had a better and more correct retry system that wasn't being used for this. It wasn't a hack, so much as removing someone elses (unnecessary) hack that fixed the problem.