In defense of Eli:

Code, like the show West World can be exploratory, especially if you are learning or even just applying a new (to the developer) technology, or known technology to a new problem. Also like West World there is a point where the mistakes in code design begin to appear and minor adjustments to the code begin to cross back on itself giving that spaghetti appearance and unexpected consequences. Given time, noodles are stretched into neat rows and it looks like a well-researched and designed application (kinda like making sausage).

Unfortunately when you take over someone else's work, the first place you visit are the problem areas where the WTF's are concentrated. This could be due to changes in requirements, changes in design or simply hacking out something so that you can work on another section of the code. Eli may have had a plan, but he may not have been able to realize it.

Today’s technology allows developers to code first (some vendors even encourage it), which is OK since refactoring tools make de-spaghetti-fying it very easy, but at some point a design decision needs to be made and documented, if only to define the point of completion. Also, code without comments is play code, there is no such thing as self-commenting code. Code should be reviewed and comments make that process much easier. Any good code will be updated and comments make that easier as well. Un-commented code is throw-away code.

West World started and ended like the original movie (a favorite of mine) but everything in between seem like a random walk trying to fill in stories that did not exist in movie. Lots of new technologies thrown in for no known purpose.