phoboslab was downplaying their own efforts by saying that the Cross Code team customised the Impact engine a bunch. My point was that no amount of customisation can turn a bad engine into a good one (you can't polish a turd), so phoboslab definitely deserves credit for building the base engine for Cross Code.

At a risk of being off-topic and not contributing much to this particular conversation (as I doubt it's relevant to the point you're making), I'd like to note that I often actually find it preferable to "polish a turd" than to start from scratch. It's just much easier for my mind to start putting something that already exists into shape than to stop staring at a blank screen, and in turn it can save me a lot of time even if what I end up with is basically a ship of Theseus. Something something ADHD, I guess.

However, I'm perfectly aware this approach makes little sense anywhere you have to fight to justify the need to get rid of stuff that already "works" to your higher-ups ;)