> 10x developers

If they're causing code quality slide, they're not a "10x developer."

Depends on the project. If you have to develop features just for ticking off points in a contract that nobody will ever use or prototyping it can be pretty useful. If that code will run 10+ years then not.

A Scotsman will always be a Scotsman due to his ancestry or citizenship.

If a 10x developer does not deliver 10x productivity or value of the median developer, they do not meet the definition of a 10x developer.

This feels like the ones often seen as 10x heroes, because they're the only ones who can be productive in the mess they created.