I think we all agree that the quality of the code itself goes down over time. I think the point that is being made is that the quality of the final product goes

I think we all agree that the quality of the code itself goes down over time. I think the point that is being made is that the quality of the final product goes up over time. E.g. you might fix a bug by adding a hacky workaround in the code; better product, worse code.