This made me smile (“refute a hypothetical group of engineers...”). But even if the author is not refuting Kondo’s methods specifically, is the author not saying that acts of intentional tidying should be viewed with skepticism for putting form over function? When Kondo’s approach is a perfect counterexample of the claim that decluttering is putting aesthetics over efficiency.

Actually, I think this article is not about software at all, or decluttering a room, it’s about “ complex systems — like laws, cities, or corporate processes,” and then uses the word “systems” as shorthand for this, and then talks a bit about managing software projects but it’s really still about good corporate process, and then mentions tidying a room but mostly as a joke.

I think the actual point is more about large groups of people or organisms that function well together, and how you shouldn’t assume it is better to impose uniformity. Even then, though, it is easy to argue both sides of this point, pick apart the examples given in the article, and use a codebase as an analogy to an organization.