> it's very hard to make a "bad" variant of the code [...] looking like sane code

That is very hard, but not what was quoted above. The length has no part in it. The core part needed for the shattered collision attacks involves basically binary data.

    $ curl -s https://shattered.io/static/shattered-1.pdf | hexdump -C > s1
    $ curl -s https://shattered.io/static/shattered-2.pdf | hexdump -C > s2
    $ diff s1 s2
    13,20c13,20
    < 000000c0  73 46 dc 91 66 b6 7e 11  8f 02 9a b6 21 b2 56 0f  |sF..f.~.....!.V.|
    < 000000d0  f9 ca 67 cc a8 c7 f8 5b  a8 4c 79 03 0c 2b 3d e2  |..g....[.Ly..+=.|
    < 000000e0  18 f8 6d b3 a9 09 01 d5  df 45 c1 4f 26 fe df b3  |..m......E.O&...|
    < 000000f0  dc 38 e9 6a c2 2f e7 bd  72 8f 0e 45 bc e0 46 d2  |.8.j./..r..E..F.|
    < 00000100  3c 57 0f eb 14 13 98 bb  55 2e f5 a0 a8 2b e3 31  |<W......U....+.1|
    < 00000110  fe a4 80 37 b8 b5 d7 1f  0e 33 2e df 93 ac 35 00  |...7.....3....5.|
    < 00000120  eb 4d dc 0d ec c1 a8 64  79 0c 78 2c 76 21 56 60  |.M.....dy.x,v!V`|
    < 00000130  dd 30 97 91 d0 6b d0 af  3f 98 cd a4 bc 46 29 b1  |.0...k..?....F).|
    ---
    > 000000c0  7f 46 dc 93 a6 b6 7e 01  3b 02 9a aa 1d b2 56 0b  |.F....~.;.....V.|
    > 000000d0  45 ca 67 d6 88 c7 f8 4b  8c 4c 79 1f e0 2b 3d f6  |E.g....K.Ly..+=.|
    > 000000e0  14 f8 6d b1 69 09 01 c5  6b 45 c1 53 0a fe df b7  |..m.i...kE.S....|
    > 000000f0  60 38 e9 72 72 2f e7 ad  72 8f 0e 49 04 e0 46 c2  |`8.rr/..r..I..F.|
    > 00000100  30 57 0f e9 d4 13 98 ab  e1 2e f5 bc 94 2b e3 35  |0W...........+.5|
    > 00000110  42 a4 80 2d 98 b5 d7 0f  2a 33 2e c3 7f ac 35 14  |B..-....*3....5.|
    > 00000120  e7 4d dc 0f 2c c1 a8 74  cd 0c 78 30 5a 21 56 64  |.M..,..t..x0Z!Vd|
    > 00000130  61 30 97 89 60 6b d0 bf  3f 98 cd a8 04 46 29 a1  |a0..`k..?....F).|

An ASCII formatted file only has text data. Also, with the shattered attack you can't choose what the two versions should be so you are required to cross reference the different looking binary data to turn on/turn off some functionality. So the attack is mostly interesting when you include binary data. With the chosen prefix attack, you can have two arbitrary components, even textual ones, but they still have to be followed by such a binary component.

Also now git has collision detection code from sha1collisiondetection [1], making attacks even harder.

[1]: https://github.com/cr-marcstevens/sha1collisiondetection