Sensible for who? Companies may try to estimate costs of maintenance vs rewrite, but individuals need to make the final call and for them the benefits usually g

Sensible for who? Companies may try to estimate costs of maintenance vs rewrite, but individuals need to make the final call and for them the benefits usually go the other way. Maintaining some existing project is going to get you nothing if you do it right and will bring you problems if it breaks despite your best efforts. Rewriting an existing system in a new tech stack counts as exciting innovative work for promotion purposes, or at least prepares your CV for your next job hop. With salary bumps between levels being what they are in software, I'm not surprised people choose the more lucrative option.