The most significant reason that Blender is in its current position is because of the significant refactoring it undertook starting in version 2.5 I believe. 7 years brewing in the pot! It cant have been easy... but the outcome (Blender 2.8) is when we sersiolsy starting thinking about using it in our uni.

Captain Disillusion did a great breakdown (diss :) of that: https://youtu.be/1qSTcxt2t74?t=1273 (21m10s on for ~5 mins)