I don't think this describes a "flurry of hacks". To me, the confrontation posed there is not between speed and quality, but which constraints affect the syste

I don't think this describes a "flurry of hacks". To me, the confrontation posed there is not between speed and quality, but which constraints affect the system design most: coherence, or overall simplicity. I would claim the "worse is better" school of design aims to lower overall complexity by cutting the corners where the added complexity to maintain design coherence does not seemingly add any value to the implementation nor the end users.