While Joel's articles are interesting and, as a user, I like their products, from an outsider's point of view, I have an impression that their internal engineer

While Joel's articles are interesting and, as a user, I like their products, from an outsider's point of view, I have an impression that their internal engineering is, as we call it - "yet another CRUD job", but "packed" in a shiny way. It would be great to hear insider opinions.