[stcg]

This is like saying "A slow leak is cheaper than a burst pipe"

Yes, okay. But with both you will have a bad time cleaning up.

There is a third option: good abstractions.

I did see this pattern described in the blog in practice a lot (and fell victim to it myself) and I think that in general this comes down to inexperienced programmers. Object oriented programming makes it worse.

Teaching these programmers that they should not abstract is not the solution. It is blocking their growth.

Teach them how to make better interfaces instead.

[dang]

The OP is aware of good abstractions and is describing a procedure for finding them, or for increasing one's chances of finding them.

[zadikian]

The saying is you build better abstractions if you don't build them too early.