Unfortunately that is not really what people mean with "big system" - although I do agree with your point. It shows how nice it can be when you add on complexity.
Which means you have to rely on he said/she said, hearsay and other totally non objective accounts.
To find out for myself, I plan on one day doing something large and messy with arc. I pick arc cause I figure in the eons it will be before I get around to it, arc will still be around (s/arc/a lisp/)
I really should get that book in paper form.