"Sure our code was small and simple, and theirs large and complex"
Having a complex piece of code, maybe with a lot of 'historical cruft' and legacy 3rd party modules? Business politics? Maybe a new manager wants his programming team to work on 'Shiny X' because that will make him/her look better with upper management?
Trust me, 95% of programmers (and most people for that matter) would rather feel like they are doing a valuable service and adding value to a product or service, than simply and lazily going through the motions of 'coding'.
Until you've walked a mile in some 'Enterprise application developer', or any one else I think it will be difficult for you to evaluate the global picture.
Although I understand you frustration and completely agree with the symptoms you mention, the cause is far more complex and difficult to grasp unfortunately.
"Sure our code was small and simple, and theirs large and complex"
Having a complex piece of code, maybe with a lot of 'historical cruft' and legacy 3rd party modules? Business politics? Maybe a new manager wants his programming team to work on 'Shiny X' because that will make him/her look better with upper management?
Trust me, 95% of programmers (and most people for that matter) would rather feel like they are doing a valuable service and adding value to a product or service, than simply and lazily going through the motions of 'coding'.
Until you've walked a mile in some 'Enterprise application developer', or any one else I think it will be difficult for you to evaluate the global picture.
Although I understand you frustration and completely agree with the symptoms you mention, the cause is far more complex and difficult to grasp unfortunately.