This sentiment comes up often and drives me nuts. Most of the time, the only thing to understand about somebody else's mangled API or shitty vendor-provided lib

This sentiment comes up often and drives me nuts. Most of the time, the only thing to understand about somebody else's mangled API or shitty vendor-provided library is that their manager crawled up their ass over a deadline so they kicked the can down the road to you. There's nothing else to "get". There are entire languages (C comes to mind) so laden with footguns that trying to "correct your mental model" to comply with it is like lobotmizing yourself so you can deeply understand the mental state of a lobotomite. There are languages and tools and methods for programming that are effective enough at limiting or eliminating bugs that you don't need much more than a print statement here or there. Most of us don't or can't use them.