I review a lot of code for work and I agree with you that you can usually tell the quality of the code simply by looking at its outward appearance. Rough edges

I review a lot of code for work and I agree with you that you can usually tell the quality of the code simply by looking at its outward appearance. Rough edges and bizarre shapes almost always indicate poor, unstructured thinking in the code itself. Not saying I go by shape alone, but if it looks messy, that's a warning flag.