This "clever code" is a bit misnomer for this kind of phenomena isn't it? Even overly-complex code is not an accurate term for that because overly-complex code

This "clever code" is a bit misnomer for this kind of phenomena isn't it? Even overly-complex code is not an accurate term for that because overly-complex code can be caused by an overly-complex valid spec. "Stupidly out-of-spec code" or "Stupidly prematurely abstracted code" are more fitting to describe those kind of code. I personally feel uncomfortable calling them clever code because they are not clever at all so that they are causing physical pain. I'm fortunate to have a complete "creative-control" over a code several times. I frequently tell people to stop writing code that we don't need for the moment. Most of them are anticipation of reuses.