[rstuart4133]

All metrics can be horrible. To take an obvious example, we used to repeatedly see the temperature on one cold day being quoted as proof that global warming wasn't happening. So clearly the temperature must be a horrible metric for global warming, right?

It is of course the main metric for global warming, but it can be used badly or very well. Just like Lines of Code, it's hard to even get the measurement right. Do you measure it in the sun, or the shade? Do you measure it in a city which is relevant to the where most people feel the effects, or in the country so you get a repeatable environment. Similarly does LOC include comments and blank lines, what about patches - how do you count them? In terms of LOC per day, so you measure a single person who is churning out the code, or the entire team including the designers and documenters, and do you include the time after the project is completed doing support because of bugs?

I don't think you can blame the "temperature metric" for the bad ways it's measured or used. And I don't think you can blame Lines Of Code all of it's bad outcomes either.