[majewsky]

The problem is, even if you try to contribute negative LOC, every other week your boss/customer/PM sees a new feature in their dreams or hears about a new technology at a conference and demands you put it in there right now.

Every system that I've built so far has started out with a simple, obvious set of rules (both new systems and replacements for old systems). Then the customer/PM/whatever notices just one more edge case. And another. And another. And another. The truth is that reality is frustratingly complicated. Especially if the reality you're mapping contains the internal bureaucracies of large companies.