This wasn’t “creativity over code” so much as it was the tail end of y2k and all the greybeards were canned so none could teach the shiny whiz kid how to code like an adult.
Without the linus-like code review sessions, they never learned why and how to improve.
Now their kludge-bro mentality has raised a whole new generation.
And that’s why people don’t know not to flatpak or npm themselves into a solarwinds sploit.