Did you ever actually refactor code with a significant test suite written under heavy mocking? I have. The assumptions you make in your code are there whether

Did you ever actually refactor code with a significant test suite written under heavy mocking? I have. The assumptions you make in your code are there whether you test them or not. Better to make them explicit. This is why TDD can be useful as a design tool. Bad designs are incredibly annoying to test. :) For example if you have to mock 3 other things every time you test a unit, it may be a good sign that you should reconsider your design not delete all your tests.