One thing I've learned over the years using a lot of different languages is to pretty much ignore my initial reaction to syntax or formatting conventions for any given language - there is a pain period and then you get used to things and move on...
Edit: I'm particularly thinking of PostScript, Lisp and Python - which on first impression seemed crazy but I actually learned to really like.
I have a similar thing when I work on a new codebase (or join a new company for that matter): make a note of all the pain points, but don't do anything with them for a few months.
It'll turn out that a lot of them were for a good reason, but some of them won't be and the existing team has just got used to them ('missing stair'). That's why the notes are important, because you probably have too!
Mind you - I have joined places that were genuinely crazy (no source control, no backups, deployment by RAID...) where some things needed fixed immediately.
The company supplied on-premise server 'appliances' for a particular market niche.
To create a new deployment, find an existing server (usually at an existing customer), take out a mirrored RAID disk and replace it with a blank one. When mirroring complete put old one back in and take your new copy and use it in a new server for the new customer....
Repeatable build process, repeatable deployment process - who needs that when you have the power of RAID-1! <sob>
Wow. That's both amazing that somebody thought to do that and it worked, and terrifying that it became the official solution for production deployments.
Edit: I'm particularly thinking of PostScript, Lisp and Python - which on first impression seemed crazy but I actually learned to really like.