When I used much of these same methods at uni, all the software was utterly unoptimized "scientist-programmed" spaghetti mess and I strongly suspect it still is

When I used much of these same methods at uni, all the software was utterly unoptimized "scientist-programmed" spaghetti mess and I strongly suspect it still is. And there is not a 100x hero hacker that could clean this Augean stable.