Of course they care, but they are also willing to compromise with an over bent towards getting the job done. At least observing my dad and grandfather who have been in the plumbing industry their entire adult lives.

Software Craftsman, on average, trend towards the code is the ultimate goal and/or product. The job WILL NOT get done if they don't like how the code will be written. They've swung the pendulum too far in the opposite direction.

Ultimately, its a give and take between the business and software. In fact, this holds true FOR ANY DEPARTMENT in a business. Marketing I'm sure feels some of the same feelings development do, as does UX, as does finance, as does sales, etc.

I am truly disgusted by the "on average" behavior and attitude that accompanies most "software craftsman".

My grandfather, who is a master by rank in the union, always told me, "there is no 'right' way. It's a matter of communicating and balancing the trade-offs".

Also, I would prefer to employ a plumber who runs a nice clean length of piping in the loft and fastens it down properly, or who explains that they'd recommend an approach that's a bit more expensive because it's more long term reliable, and so on. This kind of thing is a sign that they actually care about what they're doing, and suggests that they're less likely to, for instance, forget to actually properly complete a connection so that the next person who bangs into that pipe causes it to break apart and flood the place. [That last happened to my parents the other month.]

Every non-plumber cares a great deal about the aesthetics of plumbing when they try to do some renovations.

Amazingly, software development is basically in constant renovation mode until the program is put out to pasture.

To make the analogy work I think you have to assume he's referring to the complex of pipes hidden in the walls.

Pipe hidden behind the wall still has to be beautiful in relative to how the plumber have to work with it. If some plumber hide pipe behind the wall in a way that makes any maintenance impossible, then it's probably "ugly" for plumber standard.

Even if he is, to continue the analogy, people will care how well arranged and maintained those pipes are as soon as they have a problem with the plumbing and have to call a plumber.

A messy unfathomable array of pipes will cause the plumber to spend more time fixing the problem and will cost the customer more.

A well arranged, "documented" set of plumbing will help a good plumber spend less time performing the maintenance lowering the long-term cost of ownership of the plumbing. Not only that, it's more likely to work correctly the first time. Instead of spending weeks calling out plumbers to figure out why no hot water is coming from the bathroom taps, etc.

He is analogizing the fact that pipes are usually inaccessible behind walls, much like code is inaccessible from the executable standpoint. People running programs don't know what is going on underneath, generally. The same holds true for the average person turning on the hot water at their sink.