"Code smell" isn't an automatic "something is definitely wrong," it's an indication that maybe something is wrong.

By analogy, "modern" might indeed sometimes mean "has learned the lessons of recent history."

One can even sometimes test this by asking people what they mean by "modern."

My experience is that they usually don't know, or have a conception uncomfortably close to "it was released more recently" or "it's more like what everybody does right now," which are both certainly worth observing... but stopping there is where the thinking becomes distinctly less so.

The trouble is when it's shorthand for "forgotten the lessons of ancient history"

or worse, forgotten the lessons of recent history