[repelsteeltje]

> [..] were replaced with junior devs and senior clock-watchers.

That is a sad story indeed.

I guess the silver lining is that you didn't waste your talent contributing to a mismanaged project. Hopefully, given a free market, the service will eventually be replaced by something better.

[asoneth]

I don't regret the decision but I do feel a little guilt for what I left behind.

I have friends who moved out of struggling towns and states who describe similar feelings about being part of the "brain drain" death spiral that is hollowing out the place they grew up.

> Hopefully, given a free market, the service will eventually be replaced by something better.

I too believed that something like that would happen eventually but their business is still booming. In the decades since I've learned that the "fitness function" of companies that serve governments or large enterprises do not reward product quality (at least not commensurate with the cost of quality) so companies or teams that insist on wasting effort making quality products do not survive. It's not malice or incompetence, it's just a survival response to misaligned incentives.

[repelsteeltje]

I hear you.

Felt the same when saying goodbye to my colleagues, stranded in a golden cage, when the startup we worked for was acquired by Oracle after 8 years. Our beloved product was eventually killed (years after I resigned), but Oracle — despite its obvious mediocre halo — is still alive and kicking.