The problem with these systems is rarely the language itself. It's that they're spaghetti monoliths - with decades of growth and tangles. And it's really diff

The problem with these systems is rarely the language itself. It's that they're spaghetti monoliths - with decades of growth and tangles. And it's really difficult to overstate monolith here - government and finance are often the Himalayan examples, monoliths on tectonic scales. The closest that modern design patterns come to these systems, is using them as the nightmarish example that justifies why modern practices exist. It's rarely actually a technological problem. It's scale, scope, documentation, budget and motivation. You have to take Mount Everest, and carve it into 2 million separate boulders. Document every single one of them. Paint some of them. Replace some of them with stronger materials. If any of them move, you failed. If any snow is disturbed, you failed. If the climbers even notice this is happening, or has happened, you've failed. And on top of this herculean feat, the person paying for it needs to understand that despite the insane cost of this endeavour, he's probably not going to see a single benefit - but his successor in 10-20 years will. But if you fail, he's going to feel that hard and fast.