I'm just going to attempt to answer your question rather than question your motives. This is the difference between software and most other forms of "construct

I'm just going to attempt to answer your question rather than question your motives. This is the difference between software and most other forms of "construction." There are no material costs. There is no scrap to reclaim. Bits can't be reused like steel. Tearing down code is negative work. This is also goes toward the odd feeling we often have that software shares so many attributes the fine arts even though it shares so many attributes with engineering disciplines. First: realize that the word rewrite, not the act, strikes fear into the hearts of people. Just don't say it. Second: realize that the difference between a "fix" and "rewrite" is nil. Are you going to fix it without changing it? Not if the problem is really in the code. You don't edit out the plot hole in your novel or unpaint your landscape into a lounging nude. Now, the answer: say you'll fix it. You're really talking about the same thing. You asserted that it would be cost-effective and efficient. To me, that implies that it will address the urgency. It's almost always quick and easy to fix what you know is wrong. The part that makes it hard, slow, and expensive is rolling it out. For instance, it may have taken a week to design a better data model for your SaaS app vs. a month to try to find and mitigate a slow query, but now you have to figure out how to migrate all of your clients, and that's a bitch.