Let me be clear (and I don't work at google). I'm not saying google doesn't spend a lot of engineering time doing rewrites. I'm saying if google DOES spend a lot of the engineering time of its 20,000 engineers doing rewrites that is BAD by all measures.
Maybe it would explain how a company with 1,000 startups worth of "top-talent" engineers could not produce any new functionality in the last 5 years though (small exception of AI)
This is a good point worth exploring. If google has 1000 startups worth of talent (which is another point worthdiscussing) the corporate structure has clearly slowed down new functionality or new product ideas. It seems like it is 1000 times harder at google which levels the playing field.
Maybe it would explain how a company with 1,000 startups worth of "top-talent" engineers could not produce any new functionality in the last 5 years though (small exception of AI)