Yes, design is pruning the "bad" branches of evolution. You are ruling out what you think are bad features / designs.
You could be wrong at predicting the future, in which case your system will fail. And that happens all the time. But someone else will succeed (I guess that is another level of evolution, among competing systems rather than evolving features within a system.)
> I do think McIlroy is right. You need taste to "correct" the ugliness of evolution, at least in software. Evolution is important, but so is design. Like all things, neither extreme is right.
do you think, 'correction' might actually prune some branches in evolution ? but, honestly, i think that is like predicting the future...