I think there's a middle ground here. The original quote does not mean DRY=bad, abstraction=bad. The point is there is a non-zero cost to these things. A bad ab

I think there's a middle ground here. The original quote does not mean DRY=bad, abstraction=bad. The point is there is a non-zero cost to these things. A bad abstraction can, as you say, accumulate to something terrible through inertia or inexperience. A bad abstraction, even if caught early, was probably not worthwhile - I mean, it took time just to make the original one right? This does not mean that we should be scared of abstraction in general, but in my opinion abstractions that are purely for the sake of reducing duplication should be viewed with an extra level of apprehension.