[deangiberson]

I think these are two overlapping non-linear functions, the intersection of the two is a minima.

"Many eyes" worked for a while but the benefits were lost as scale increased. You are saying that we need to focus on reducing code size. This other extreme is many small unrelated pieces of small functionality, which also breaks down. You would just have a bunch of small programs, some of which are ignored. The complexity remains constant.

Software inspection has shown to have good benefits, this is the heart of "many eyes", the trick is getting coverage. "Many eyes" worked when applied against small enough problems for self organizing groups. As you hint when you say "Modern code is too voluminous for there to be enough eyes to keep Raymond's theory working in practice." Isn't this a management issue? A problem of getting enough people to look into the dark corners and communicate the results?