I think "quality" (quoted to keep the term vague) is important for long-term maintainability of software at scale (>1 developer). However, working / shipped / earning code is always better than quality code that isn't used in production.
ffmpeg, facebook, claude, twitter etc might not have existed if the authors focused on quality over shipping.
ffmpeg, facebook, claude, twitter etc might not have existed if the authors focused on quality over shipping.