Let say you have the sources of an algorithm implementation, but they are unreadable because the variables are not named, you don't know the name of the algorithm getting implemented and so on. Of course this is a lot harder to understand than code which cites its references (like papers and so). Wouldn't this qualify as being able to "see how the the software evolved"? Granted, VCS history is only a small part of this, but I think it may help cause it would show what improvements were done, which shows the direction of the project, showing what's important. A large part of being a good programmer is knowing what NOT to do. If you see what others failed to do, don't you think that helps?
