> Software engineers are already too afraid to change existing systems, so I have found this to be a parable to solve a problem no one has.
No, that kind of fear is another manifestation of the problem of not wanting to bother to figure out why things are they way they are, but maybe tempered with a little bit of experience that changing something you don't understand can cause serious problems.
IMHO, the real lesson of the parable is to figure out why things are the way they are, and then act.
