The best feedback I ever got on an assignment in grad school was “wow, your homework looks like a textbook!”
It may not always be correct, but it’s always pretty!
They usually don’t have a choice. They know this stuff is bad, but they need it to demonstrate compliance with XYZ framework so they can fill out the marketing copy so sales can land a contract with some big customer that wants to know why $competitor has better security than you.
Holy shit, I remember now.
That’s funny, I dislike Ruby for probably the same reasons you like it. I don’t want a language that’s clever or elegant, I want it to do exactly what I say and nothing else. Lower level just makes more sense to me, I’d be a shit & unproductive software engineer.