It depends on the kind of work. Systems integrations are often complex for uncontrollable reasons. That one legacy system only speaks ASN.1, not JSON; the thr

It depends on the kind of work. Systems integrations are often complex for uncontrollable reasons. That one legacy system only speaks ASN.1, not JSON; the three vendor systems have different semantics for a fundamental concept (vendor, order, shipment); failure modes are under-documented, so defensive programming is needed; etc. If we accept that the integration itself is necessary, then the complexity necessarily comes along with it. Not to mention all the complexity generated by the client base: I'm paying for this system, it's mine, so make it do X, even if you think X is too complicated/impossible/etc.