[killbot5000]

> Engineers don't generally enjoy paying off technical debt, it's a chore. But they recognise that it must be done sometimes.

I disagree. Most engineers I work with like refactoring. It’s usually well defined work with clear metrics for success. It can also reduce daily pain if it makes delicate/messy code much easier to work with.

The problem with refactoring is that its only value is in improved execution of future projects. So it can be extremely valuable or completely useless. It depends on how likely the refactored things are to be worked on again.