Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not really a question about if GStack is 'good enough' - it's the claims about 37K LOC being legitimate. Because it's producing 'functional slop' that has little bearing on how anything else would be made the 37K LOC is totally out of context and therefore a misrepresentation. He has bragging rights over GStack - not 37K LOC, that's bad.
That's a great way to put it: functional slop. That's what I mean tho - as long as it is minimally functional it does its job. I totally get the shade thrown at ycombinator. But I guess my perception is that it has never been about the tech for them and more about getting quick hacks to get to market quickly. So it feels on brand?
I suppose the question is: will customers and business people care?
At the end of the day, if the system does what it needs to do to in exchange for money, then it's a success if people's eyes. Heck, even basic security and privacy features get ignored in most systems.
Average person treats their computers like any other appliance, they don't care if the app takes 10 minutes to load, or is slow, or ad ridden, they just want it to work.
Engineers obsess about code quality as an artistic expression but the reality is that executives and investors won't care. You can scream "maintenance burden!" all you want, but investors will happily throw money at the problem down the line to make it go away.
Our industry simply doesn't have any required rigor outside of a few edge cases in heavily regulated industries.