Over my career, I've been in a big company twice. This article definitely tracks with my experience. At one company, I think management actively didn't care, and in fact my direct manager was pretty hostile to any attempts at improving our code base as it meant disruption to what was, for him, a stable little niche he had set up.

At the second, it wasn't hostility but more indifference -- yes, in theory they'd like higher quality code, but none of the systems to make this possible were set up. My team was all brand new to the company, except for two folks who'd been at the company for several years but in a completely different domain , with a manger from yet another domain. The "relative beginner" aspect he calls out was in full effect.