Not necessarily. Sometimes the rot goes so deep that there is really no way out.

And the C pre-processor has figured prominently in more than one such case in my career. And it was precisely in the kind of way that is described in TFA.

For something to be doable it needs to make economic sense as well and that's the problem with nightmare trickery like this. Initially it seems like a shortcut, but in the long run the price tag keeps going up.