"I've searched the wiki without success for answers and only found what I needed on a forum post somewhere. And in many cases I found numerous forum posts on the same issue over a number of years, yet the issue isn't well documented in the wiki.
As a professional technical writer with many years in software development..."
So I'm sure would you have passed a couple of hours to perform adequate transfert to the Wiki on that issue ?
No... just kidding.
You're right about universal good practice rules, but don't forget that overall state of the application is dued to involved people who are just giving the time they have... people often don't dare enhancing this or that point, maybe because they just feel too humble for that.
I spend between three and five hours a day on Moodle code, and don't feel I know just 5% of it, and I'm far to understand all Martin's, Tim's and HQ deep architectural concerns !! How would a quasi end user can have such solid view ?