It’s my understanding that Tolstoy was paid by the page (or something like that based on how many words he wrote). It’s an interesting analogy to code in that Tolstoy’s writing is wonderful. His style is delightfully monotonous. It’s interesting to note that the incentives you’re talking about don’t have to result in bad code just different code (in the hands of a good enough programmer).
Many authors had similar things (Dickens was serialized with portions printed weekly/monthly) and they often read better if you read them that way. Reading a Dickens novel cover-to-cover is somewhat like binging a TV series; it's too fast and you start to notice repetition, etc.
