I think there is a such thing as “bad code” but not low quality code. Bad code can be detected by automated tooling and be improved through simple refactoring.

I'd say it this way: bad code doesn't robustly handle all the use cases, mis-interprets inputs sometimes, or is a mess to read and debug.

Yes, it matters what the code looks like. Knew a guy, named everything in his code a letter of the alphabet. a,b,c and when he got to z started za, zb etc.

That was 'bad code'. Or, it was 'Low Quality Code'. Nobody wants junk like that. Even if it passes tests, is robust etc.

> Nobody wants junk like that.

I can think of a few tools that do that to your PHP or JS code, on purpose. They even cost quite a bit of money (obfuscation). Sounds like you might have gotten a good deal there ... /s