Maintenance is often treated as the work that happens after the interesting part is done.

That framing misses the point. Maintenance is where design quality becomes visible. A good abstraction is not just pleasant when it is created. It is still understandable six months later, when the original context is gone and the next change arrives from an unexpected direction.

The best systems I have worked in usually share a few traits: fewer concepts, clearer boundaries, boring naming, and tests that explain behavior instead of implementation trivia.

Good maintenance is not glamorous. It is the quiet proof that earlier decisions were kind to the people who came next.