I think the problem is that the complexity analysis of adding is often easier, as opposed to subtracting. I.e. if I added an if statement, one can argue that yo

I think the problem is that the complexity analysis of adding is often easier, as opposed to subtracting. I.e. if I added an if statement, one can argue that you may need to only analyse that statement, while removing a bit of code may require analysing a much larger chunk of code. (it's obviously a simplification). Adding is often a local solution, while subtracting can be a global. Since we all work under some time or cognitive pressures, it's not surprising that the additive solutions are used, where other ones would be better.