> What they did have was a frightening-looking hodge-podge of cucumber-esque feature tests. I say cucumber-esque because A) It wasn’t cucumber, and B) The feature files weren’t even Gherkin compliant. It was Lettuce. The scourge of Python software testers everywhere!
So they had tests, but they weren't the tests you like?
> What followed was probably the most stressful week of attacks and counter-defense I’ve ever encountered in my career for a few hundred line code change.
A "few hundred line code change"? Could this refactor been split-up over more, smaller changes perhaps? The last time I was forced to make a change of hundreds of lines, it took days to work-out the justification with all involved. You'll find the effort much more efficient if you are able to split up the code reviews.
I stopped there. I just can't tell if he's actually serious or not.