This is very insightful. I learned it kind of the hard way. The business world is a mess. Requirements are a mess and always changing. This leads to messy code

This is very insightful. I learned it kind of the hard way. The business world is a mess. Requirements are a mess and always changing. This leads to messy code that requires a lot of time to clean up. You don't have time for that as long as there is always more customer wishes and projects coming in. As long as the business keeps working there's always something of top priority coming in. The pain starts growing but the steaming pile of code just doesn't collapse. It just kind of keeps on working while you are adding more and more code. Sure, the pain is big and progress is quite slow but what's the alternative? My advice would be to listen to the developers, to understand them and the business. To understand what they really need. What a viable path forward would be. A complete rewrite, a second system for new developments, many more developers or something. Or maybe it is the optimum solution right now because the whole company is so messy and your job is not to change the company structure. Then you maybe you could support them by slowly enhancing their skill set and accept what you can't change. Doesn't sound like fun? Then leave soon, staying won't do you any good.