alt Hacker NewsThe article's point is sound, but its missing a key component. People who build simpler systems are capable of getting more done - the build takes less, the maintenance takes less, etc. So when the engineer choosing simplicity is looking to get promoted they might have 3 or 4 bullet points to their name instead of 1.
Of course, over-simplification is the wrong decision some times, the same as abstraction and complexity is the wrong decision some times...
Your shortcut for promotion is generally building value for the company, but people need to remember that promotions support the business and they aren't free to the company.
Unfortunately, no, simpler systems often take longer to create. It's always easiest to just add some janky widget hanging off the side, than to rejigger the whole system to be simpler. It's like the Pascal quote: "I have made this longer than usual because I have not had time to make it shorter."
They take less to review and maintain etc, but the credit for those positives aren't assigned to the original engineer. Which is the point of the article.