Surely one must actually improve upon the current conventions before dismissing them, no? Similarly the field is called computer science. Not every convention

Surely one must actually improve upon the current conventions before dismissing them, no? Similarly the field is called computer science. Not every convention an engineer follows is simply because "we have yet to find a better one". I can certainly agree that the landscape has and will continue to change over time, but there are some truths when it comes to designing systems. As for gleaning understanding, tests are useful for learning "what" a system is meant to do, but wholly meaningless when we need to know "how". Often the latter becomes the important bit when we need to extend/modify code. I agree that there is a balance to be had. Not every LoC or module needs to be perfect. It's often more important (and practical) to choose a suitable level of abstraction, and make sure that the code at that level has an amount of agreed upon standardization.