Sorry to hear you gave up. And "Code does not matter" sounds evil. And, if third party is fine, who's that party? Who had put enough efforts, had some brilliant idea or just made it having "worse is better" in mind and released early? I hope next time you'll be in luck :) The programming is the art in the first place, regardless of what the mainstream suggests. Dare to do that again.
I guess I was too broad and pessimistic. By "code does not matter" I meant that it's not worth it to micro-optimize and dig into unnecessary details. It's fine if it's not perfect and has its rough edges, as long as it works correctly and looks as intended.
And I agree that programming is the art! I love it and I haven't given up on it. I just decided that it's better to focus on new and interesting problems.