It's true! If you come across a well-documented and complex piece of code, it's always easier to delete it all and write a simpler (and less correct) replacement than reading all of that code and documentation. And since your replacement is simpler, you're free to delete the inapplicable documentation that you saved so much time not reading!

If you didn't back that documentation up with some tests to reflect the necessity of that complexity, this is an avoidable tragedy. But if the junior then comes in and deletes your tests because they don't pass, that's a firin'.

In the end we had sufficiently good tests to detect such foolishness. But even that isn't good enough because if the result of the test is merely slightly off some people will just adjust the assertions!