Also, to clarify, I'm talking about cumulative changes. If I'm working with someone on a feature then we both see all of the changes as they occur. If I'm off dealing with some long initiative, I may not look at that code for 3 months and so I miss all of the intermediate states that made perfect sense at the time.

Like visiting a friend who did their own house remodel. Their spouse saw all the steps, all you saw was before and after, and so the fact that the bathroom door is missing is confusing. The bathroom still exists, but now it's the master bath.