Refactoring is an investment decision. One which, when it pays off, pays off in a nonobvious way. That was my original point.

A response of "but what if my investment decision doesnt pay off??" kind of suggests you might have missed that point.

That happens sometimes when you make investment decisions. You dont know how much you will make back or even if you will make back anything at all.

Some people dont invest their savings because they can't stand the uncertainty of not being able to quantify the payoff but I dont.