There are many ways to write a small piece of software so that it conforms to certain specs. Rules, even if arbitrary, tell a developer what is a "better way" a

There are many ways to write a small piece of software so that it conforms to certain specs. Rules, even if arbitrary, tell a developer what is a "better way" and reduces the doubts he has about how to write that code. So developers, especially novices, like rules. Software engineering is fundamentally about trade-offs and it seems plain rules like IF context THEN follow_recipe are not expressive enough. Like a database engine, rules based optimizer will only take you so far, for better results you need to use cost based optimizer, and learning the costs associated with each option only comes with experience.