He made a tradeoff that later on turned out to be wrong. I don't think that is a mistake, after all, it wasn't foreseeable at the time.
It could just as well have happened that some other requirement would have made the original solution even more impractical.
I think the only mistake here might be overthinking things (can't comment on changing other people's code, depends on company culture).
Apart from "cleanliness", what about developer happiness. If a more elegant solution makes you happy, why not go for it, at least every once in a while?
It could just as well have happened that some other requirement would have made the original solution even more impractical.
I think the only mistake here might be overthinking things (can't comment on changing other people's code, depends on company culture).
Apart from "cleanliness", what about developer happiness. If a more elegant solution makes you happy, why not go for it, at least every once in a while?