[andrewflnr]

Having (or not having) large successful projects written using some tool is not evidence that it's a good tool. Your implication that it is stands in bizarre contrast to your statement that the impact of tools is overrated.

Force of will, network effects, and other political factors dominate most forms of technical merit when it comes to "success" of a project. This includes such meritorious properties as security as well as understandable code. Let's not give up, OK? Doing a good job is always going to be hard, but it doesn't have to hurt this much, and it doesn't have to be as crappy-by-default as it is now.

As we take responsibility for doing better with our tools, we need to take responsibility for doing better on our tools.