I agree with your parent, and think you're trying to read it in an over-specific way, it's like saying "You can't compare writing and programming, because writing doesn't have comments."

The parent was making the point that, like writing, good and bad coding style is entirely subjective - necessarily so because many parts of it are simply conventional.

There are some specific constructions in programming that can be shown to be better than others through complexity theory, but even the guidelines we have for these aren't global optimums.

This is spot on.

And to go further, where the OP argued that product quality and development time are mutually exclusive; I submit that they are not.

In the right hands, good code can be written quickly and efficiently, just as good novels can be written as quickly as bad ones are, or good music can be written as quickly as bad music is.

But most companies aren't going to have "the right hands". Many wouldn't want them even if they could get them because they want programmers they can replace easily.