[humanrebar]

Lots of good points here, but maintenance work for profitable systems seems like a valid use of time.

Now, some profitable systems are slowly bitrotting and tenured engineers can keep busy doing routine work while failing to address or escalate the bitrot. But I think people who are good at making sure boring and stable things stay boring and stable are usually underappreciated.

[Jensson]

Companies pay for people do to maintenance for profitable system even if those systems doesn't much need maintenance, meaning lots of people in those roles don't do much. The point isn't that all maintenance engineers are worthless, but that it is an area where you often can be incompetent but still be kept around.