[nephrenka]

This is indeed something that the academic research paper (see https://arxiv.org/abs/2203.04374) identifies as Future Work. There could be a code familiarity component that explains the large risks and variations.

From the paper: "Could it be that changes done by the main author are faster and more predictable than corresponding changes made by a minor contributor? We suspect that author experience could be a factor that impacts the predictability of changes to low quality code."

If that turns out to be the case, then it would highlight organizational dimensions of low quality code: key personnel dependencies and on-boarding challenges.

[mjthdev]

Interesting observation, so true.