Some people are starters. Some are finishers. Some are maintainers. Few are good at all 3. Most people seem to label fast starters as "top performers". But you can be a "top performer" in any category.
However, I would claim that if you never do maintenance work, you don't really know if what you're writing is crap.
I agree with you on that last bit as I'm basically a sysadmin/dev that gets stuck maintaining the systems when "top performers" move on to the next project. ;)
However, I would claim that if you never do maintenance work, you don't really know if what you're writing is crap.