The key to understanding our (apparent) disagreement is:
> that when the business rules change
Yes, when things change complexity has a cost. The inverse is also true however, if nothing changes, it has no cost. If class A, B, and C do almost the same thing, then nobody cares because the computer will gladly execute almost the same thing in different locations in memory. The modern computer built today is essentially perfect. It will execute the same thing every time, it will not suddenly require changes because there was some degradation in an adder, and no cogs need changing. All the maintenance is stuff we make up because we want it to do something it never did before.
Things always change. Software does not perform in a vacuum. It's subject to the inexorable progression of hardware decay and business knowledge loss, at the very least.
A friend's friend's company absolutely relies on this bespoke computer program running on an un-networked desktop computer running Windows XP from the 2000s. There will be a degradation in its hard drive, its power supply, its fan; something. All the lines of code that comprise that program (which are lost to the sands of time) are a liability because that code has been lost. All we can do now is virtualize the application and move it to newer hardware that isn't on the verge of failing. Rewriting the app is out of everyone's budget so that's all we can do, and hope for the best.
The lower the log LoC of their Visual Basic app, the easier it should be to replace and rewrite atop a modern tech stack.
If it ain't broke... you point out. It's old and creaky, and everyone's just afraid of the thing. There's no real backup (working on that!), there's no accessibility to it from the Internet - looking up info on that computer via a smartphone or tablet would be a boon to the company. It's absolutely load bearing, but it's like a bridge that's too small for the city that's grown around it.
The world moves forwards around software that's sat in place, so the software wants to move as well. We're not "making up" maintenance stuff just for the hell of it. Unless you work on the same chair and desk you used when you were 5. I don't fit in mine, and they were lost to a move anyway.
> that when the business rules change
Yes, when things change complexity has a cost. The inverse is also true however, if nothing changes, it has no cost. If class A, B, and C do almost the same thing, then nobody cares because the computer will gladly execute almost the same thing in different locations in memory. The modern computer built today is essentially perfect. It will execute the same thing every time, it will not suddenly require changes because there was some degradation in an adder, and no cogs need changing. All the maintenance is stuff we make up because we want it to do something it never did before.