As it's hosted on CSAIL, I was somewhat disappointed by the code quality section:

https://missing.csail.mit.edu/2026/code-quality/

Although it's specifically code quality, not software quality, I feel so much is missing. Of course there is no space to explain it in detail, but they could at least list/mention things like complexity, maintainability, modularity etc.

I am not at lecture 9 yet. I would love to follow their journey at human pace just like I did 30 years ago.

I do think your point is valid. The trend in the industry is putting emphasis on cosmetic qualities (format, workflow, testing), producing huge amount of metadata that consumes huge amount of human and machine energy for the peace of mind.

Complexity, maintainability, modularity have more to do with thinking about the problems at proper abstraction levels.

It seems we ended up spending more time on tools like writers spending more time on sharpening pencils or playing with fonts than writing something meaningful.

A low quality software can have beautiful code just like a low quality book has beautiful fonts.

I watched this YouTube video

Two decades of Git: A conversation with creator Linus Torvalds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCr_gb8rdEI

I was surprised that he only spent four months on it as a maintainer. What a great piece of work by a great software developer.