Also, newsflash: the code is the program

What the phrasing really meant was caring about the result, not the program, and it has the same energy as people saying mass-slopped books are as good as regular books because they are entertaining.

In the long run, what matters is the maintainability of the code. And the security, and the performance. All that comes from the code. The most beautiful code with proper layers of abstraction is gonna turn to shit when business needs come into play and there's not enough time to rearchitect the system properly.