Not all software operates at scale. The backwards compatibility fostered by posix and wintel has meant many such applications have been silently doing their jobs for many years without (m)any changes.
Yes, when the underlying assumptions don't change and the program is already good it will remain good. The point is that the changes of the underlying assumptions can make even the once perfect program one that's suddenly unusable and it's impossible to cover all future possibilities. Targeting realistically is the only way to make the good program at the start.
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Not all software operates at scale. The backwards compatibility fostered by posix and wintel has meant many such applications have been silently doing their jobs for many years without (m)any changes.
Yes, when the underlying assumptions don't change and the program is already good it will remain good. The point is that the changes of the underlying assumptions can make even the once perfect program one that's suddenly unusable and it's impossible to cover all future possibilities. Targeting realistically is the only way to make the good program at the start.