100% agree. I've worked in maybe a half-dozen projects where flexibility was a critical concern and, as the result, the end product became harder to understand

100% agree. I've worked in maybe a half-dozen projects where flexibility was a critical concern and, as the result, the end product became harder to understand and maintain. Besides, the vast majority of the flexibilities built into the product haven't came to be exercised along the years those products remained in production. I don't think it's fair for me to criticize those architects, since I have now the privilege of hindsight and might well have taken the same wrong decisions in their place. But I learned some lessons and, with all due respect to the author's credentials, I don't feel convinced. Different kinds of applications are certainly more or less prone to certain sorts of changes, but it doesn't seem to me that engineering most aspects for change should be the default approach.