Although, I have to say - it has caused some very interesting debate in response - I almost feel as though the right decisions may be made in the end, even if it takes a few years.
My initial response was 'Ugh. It's not THAT hard to write code that compiles properly, especially if you have a whole day to write it.' but then again, I was a bad programmer for a long time, and it takes a lot of bad compiles to get through that phase...