For someone coming from a s/w engineering background and recently got involved in blockchain development I can't but fully agree!
It's rarely quite so simple. It can be a fairly straightforward process In an actively maintained code base where every aspect sees ongoing development by competent and engaged engineers, where rigorous tests can tell you quickly when something no longer works as intended, where all of the third-party dependencies are continuously updated to newer revisions, and where your management is willing to invest in future potential at a comparable level to adding new features.
I've rarely had the luxury of working with a team that disciplined, even though I've spend decades in senior leadership roles where I'm advocating for all of the above.
Chances are there isn't a dedicated team at all. That there's a lot of code any developer would be afraid to touch because it isn't documented and there aren't adequate tests. That it depends on libraries more than a decade old, written by other companies that have made dramatic changes before their own 64-bit migration so the newer version is fundamentally incompatible with the Kronos code. It's virtually guaranteed that each update over the years is a tightly budgeted attempt to get a feature done with the bare minimum of cost. That shortcuts were taken by applying the software equivalent of duct tape to hold it all together.
It might sound like I'm disparaging Korg and the Kronos team. That's not my intent. This is just the reality of most modern software development. Per the obligatory XKCD comic...
