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lost me at: writing good code is easy.

this write up sounds like the ramblings of a bitter programming reject
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Ummm perhaps not. But good code will certainly not hurt. Good code will assist in fighting entropy (code rot) and often bring up moral and motivation. That alone might be worth much more than anything else.

I see "good code" as one part in a combination of things that will make a software application successful. Yes, "good code" by itself will not save a crappy application. But consider the inverse: take an otherwise great app without "bad" code and you have a one-off app with a greater frequency of bugs and problems that are more difficult to maintain. It ends up costing more to support it, more to pay a dev team to completely rewrite it for the next version, and higher turnover rate for your development team.

In the end, bad code can cost you customers, man hours (money), and long term growth for the product brand. All for a slightly larger reward in the short-term. Try googling "technical debt" to understand the importance of good code (a good place to start is here: http://www.nickawilliams.com/2007/12/21/technical-debt/).

I don't really get it. Okay, so good code *alone* will not save us. You can say the same things for good governance, being agile, proper documentation, proper funding, good team spirit etc.

Well, if good code alone will not save us, then what about bad codes?

Good code alone may not save us, but it will *help* us. That is better than bad codes any day.

Same thing goes with other good things as well (eg. good attitude, etc).