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I think that phrase is a thought terminating cliche. How can one argue with the claim that every construct has a valuable hidden purpose despite evidence to the contrary?

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I don't think the claim is "every construct has a valuable hidden purpose". It's "if you can't explain all the important purposes of a construct, you aren't ready to take it down."

I remind myself of Chesterton's Fence every time I encounter some WTF code.

> How can one argue with the claim that every construct has a valuable hidden purpose despite evidence to the contrary?

He doesn't claim that it has a valuable hidden purpose, he claims that it had (when it was constructed). :-)

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