This is inspired from another rant I just commented on.

Would you rather build something that was technically pristine and something other coders would salivate over, but no-one used it

OR

build a hacky mess that was shit technically but became a “hit” with users.

In case of FOSS, I prefer the second. Closed source, the first.

Why not both?

@spacem why would you build both?

@spacem a hacky mess that no one uses?

@Olverine or a pristine codebase which is also a hit.

I would take the best of both worlds, hacky mess that no one uses!

[sarcasm]

@masterdoctor simple. FOSS requires community to reduce the load and find bugs. messy codes means interesting interactions, and then help fiximg it from the community.
closed source means few ppl who can look at the code and fix, so clean code is much better. few ppl using it means less bug noise.

To do or not to do

Well idk the context but if it is your own project then just because something is used is no excuse for the code to be mess.. If you have job offers to work on either then lots of users and a mess looks like a much more stressful job.