Why do you believe that? If the goal were to measure your individual programming skills in a vacuum, then your recommendation makes sense. However, software en

Why do you believe that? If the goal were to measure your individual programming skills in a vacuum, then your recommendation makes sense. However, software engineering in a larger organization has a different goal -- it's team sport of building & operating software to serve the business purposes of that organization. With this goal in mind, one's ability to build upon & maintain an inherited codebase is definitely relevant to success.