I'm not sure I agree with the assumption "The main problem with fear of breaking the code is the implicit assumption that any code is really that good to begin

I'm not sure I agree with the assumption "The main problem with fear of breaking the code is the implicit assumption that any code is really that good to begin with." Most of the time I work around code because it is a POS that I do not have the time or budget to clean it up. It's fragile but it works, leave it alone until the day it breaks and then it will move from important to urgent and budget will become available.