Do you mean that it is OK to have messy code as long as your competitors do too or do you mean that since chrome is doing it, it can't result in messy code?

I see no connection between WC's and messy code. Can bo good, can be bad.

Just saying -- transitioning a large project from one component system to another -- while also developing/evolving the new component system ...

I can just imagine it would be easy to build up a very large mess ...