"Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth." - M. Aurelius
You just got a new customer and are embarking on the journey of figuring out what their platform looks like after its previous steward has left the scene.
You dive into the upgrade monitor to find skipped change records, look at the incident form, and in general, you are in awe of the degree of customization and bad-practice development that has taken place. Who did this? Let's go to sys_update_xml.list and find the record. Oh, these guys, OK.
Maybe you take it a step further and let the platform owner and sponsor know what a good thing it is that you are now in control, as if a grown-up has appeared - finally - ready to set things in order.
The customer agrees, appalled that they have not known of the bad practices that have taken place, and everything suddenly makes sense to them: so "that is why our users are complaining - thanks!".
After knowing nothing of the situation but the technical debt incurred over time, you have voiced your opinion. The identification of maturation opportunities is valuable, though it would not be fair to put the responsibility on whomever person or organization has placed in the updates that made a lousy practice visible.
We should be wary not to take an overly simplistic and negative perspective on these symptoms.
The truth is undoubtedly much more complex than whatever wrong practice configuration you may have found in their platform, and the truth can never be known to its full extent. So, refrain from putting your perspective out there other than: "I see that it is time to mature X part of your instance." Help the platform and business correct its course.
And once you start doing that, you may find your very own obstacles when trying to attempt the obvious good practice.
