[happimess]

I would alter your list to say that a competent software engineer working together with a scientist > a scientist taking a thoughtful approach > a sloppy scientist > someone who is neither a competent software engineer nor a thoughtful scientist.

From the article and your comment above, it sounds to me like you have had to work with a terrible programmer who ranted about best practices to cover for his incompetence. We've all worked with someone like that, even in software shops. Don't tar us all with that brush.