Good article. I see your point and it is hard to argue with it. All systems need maintenance and that is not the same as tearing it apart to see the makeup of the insides. There is value to that but of course not in production systems.

However, it is strange to see how many people associate maintenance with (fixing it when it isn’t broken). They are 2 entirely different things. So your absolutely right in many IT circles and especially the users who associate those 2 things together.

For example would we leave our databases unoptimized after years of use or our backup data undeduplicated when we know it needs it? Of course not. Subsequently that is just good maintenance.

Properly maintained systems are crucial in IT just like your car, house, or your land. Maintaining what you have is really just caring about what you have.