I think this is the key part about adopting anything: Make sure you understand the goals behind it, and how those led to the choices it made. Not understanding

I think this is the key part about adopting anything: Make sure you understand the goals behind it, and how those led to the choices it made. Not understanding those is when you start cargo culting. Of course, it's impossible to know every thought process that went through the original developer's head, but with an understanding of the core goals, you can at least make educated guesses as to what's "load bearing", so to speak.