> even with an appropriate refactor, the codebase as a (fragmented) whole remains less readable and maintainable than a long spaghetti function potentially is

> even with an appropriate refactor, the codebase as a (fragmented) whole remains less readable and maintainable than a long spaghetti function potentially is Personally (anecdotally), I don't believe that this statement is true. In my experience, an appropriate refactor will always be more readable than any spaghetti code. I may be wrong, your statement may be true, but without good examples of such refactors, who can say. The above commenter is just pointing out that the example given in the article is absurd. Which it is. And with that, the argument is lost.