> - If your code requires constant maintenance you are doing it wrong.

Disagree. Your code should reflect the business you're in, and changes to the business are what creates opportunity and let you turn your skills into profit.

Clean code is absolutely a means to an end, and if you've got a codebase that's just sitting there fulfilling some static business purpose then yes, it makes sense to leave it ugly. (Similarly with code that you know is being end-of-lifed soon - if there is not going to be a need to make changes to the code in the future then it's fine to load it up with technical debt until it sinks). But that's the exception rather than the rule.