Maybe not quality of the code base per se, but Forbes had an article a while ago that called out ColdFusion as one of the contributing causes of their demise: http://www.forbes.com/sites/stephenwunker/2011/07/25/4-moral...

I don't know to what extent that is fair, but I can only imagine that at the very least highering the best and the brightest to work on a coldfusion project could be.. tough.