PoL, it isn't so much about languages as projects. I've worked on a range of things, and a game like VO is an entirely different beast from the kind of stuff you do.

You may want to get some experience trying to create games of VO's calibre before you make any further comments about ease of implementing things. Trust me, large games seem like much simpler beasts to a programmer who hasn't tried his hand at making them than they actually are.

You keep bandying about quips like, "either it's simple, or they let their engine get unmaintainable". Maybe they did. Is that a sin? Are you trying to say you're better than them or something? All you're really doing is making yourself out to be a fool.

Frankly I would be surprised and impressed if VO's engine were anywhere near as nice as you say it should be.

The reality of video game engines, PoL, is that they are very often not the easily maintained projects that we would like, especially when they are in-house engines. Making things well takes a lot of time and planning. While taking time in the short term can save time and improve prophets in the long run, the long run is irrelevant if you cannot put food on the table right now. Remember, GS is a small company, not a big corp like Blizzard. And there is a lot of stuff going on in a video game. Anybody who can plan up a nice extensible maintainable architecture that actually winds up working out through the life of the game is a very impressive person indeed.