> I don't think you can separate the principle from its misapplication.

In practice you are right, but this is just part of the human condition. There is no substitute for experience. Wisdom can’t be taught. The map is not the territory. Yada yada.

Principles still have value as short-hand for knowledgeable practitioners though. In fact, they have outsize value in this case because strong programmers will recognize and reflect on both the upsides as well as downsides discussed here. Communication bandwidth is the single most important thing to scale teams working on irreducibly complex domains.

I also sign up into thought school where “principles” went bankrupt. When I see someone quoting principle as a sole reason for code change it automatically shouts it is shallow explanation without much thought.