I get what you're saying, but I don't good definitions are the problem.
Whether an architecture is objectively excellent doesn't really matter. The question is whether the people who are going to maintain the thing can work well with it. A tribe of OO partisans will produce a very different system than a tribe of FP ones. Each could find their own system highly maintainable but find the others' incomprehensible enough that they'd rather rebuild it than take it over.
What I think really matters is close, respectful collaboration among a group of people in a context with frequent iteration, so that the team can learn to make good choices together. And, over the longer term, enough continuity in that team so that new people can absorb enough context that the culture is transmitted for as long as the code lasts.
Whether an architecture is objectively excellent doesn't really matter. The question is whether the people who are going to maintain the thing can work well with it. A tribe of OO partisans will produce a very different system than a tribe of FP ones. Each could find their own system highly maintainable but find the others' incomprehensible enough that they'd rather rebuild it than take it over.
What I think really matters is close, respectful collaboration among a group of people in a context with frequent iteration, so that the team can learn to make good choices together. And, over the longer term, enough continuity in that team so that new people can absorb enough context that the culture is transmitted for as long as the code lasts.