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>My *personal* opinion is that "refactoring" should really only be applicable in a small minority of cases.

Agreed. It all depends on the original code.

I've had to 'refactor' code that was originally one great big procedure that did many dozens of distinguishable tasks. I've had to 'refactor' code that simply was not efficient or was obsolete.

OTOH I've seen people use refactoring as a convenient way to stay employed or keep a contract on the billing clock. I've also seen people refactor usable code into such a deeply embedded stack of objects that it was impossible to understand or debug by anyone including the 'refactorer'.

Basically, refactoring is not a be-all and end-all solution. It certainly does have its uses though.