Others have already made great points about why this is a weird argument to make (and almost feels like it's mean to rankle the crowd here and get us to react,

Others have already made great points about why this is a weird argument to make (and almost feels like it's mean to rankle the crowd here and get us to react, but you got me, too, I guess), but I hate it for one very big reason: it makes engineers into robots who only do things to optimise, leaving no room for creativity or joy. Most poeple here may not like thinking about it that way (or even agree), but writing code is about lot more than just solving a bunch of constraints, it involves tons of creativity and passion. The best bits of code made me feel like I added something beautiful or elegant to the world, and on the flipside when I have no choice over how I'd do things I'm miserable writing code. We're all humans, and we should do things we like, as much as possible.