I would say there is some good: * a program with 0 lines doesn't do anything. So there's a positive correlation right there. * "Code golf" code is typically h

I would say there is some good: * a program with 0 lines doesn't do anything. So there's a positive correlation right there. * "Code golf" code is typically hard to read, change, and debug, so this sets a lower bound on how much code you need to do something interesting. * Whether you're doing copy-pasta or not, the amount of functionality usually correlates positively with how many lines you've written. You're right that as one "levels up", the ratio of functionality/LoC goes down - again, not to code golf succinctness, but it will go down. So that's the danger of the metric. It encourages working hard, but discourages working smart.