I don't think anyone purposely writes terrible code. You know the old standard: Never attribute to malice what is equally explained by incompetence But

I don't think anyone purposely writes terrible code. You know the old standard: Never attribute to malice what is equally explained by incompetence But certainly stagnant conditions or burnout can prevent people from really putting in the extra effort. Why go the extra mile when it's consistently not rewarded, and in some cases punished? Also many software engineers are just not very good, frankly. It's extremely difficult to become an actuary without a strong mathematics background. It is very easy to become a software engineer with any kind of background, even if being a good one is just as difficult.