In my own ham-fisted experiments with coding loops, one pathology I have noticed is that the LOC just spirals out of control. That's likely because of the layers of defensive fixes, etc., that get built. That inevitably causes context bloat (or at least navigational friction) and results in quality decline.

I wonder how many loop-related issues could be addressed by simply fixing a LOC budget, or assigning a cost in some way. Unclear how you would dial in the right numbers, though.