"Am I blithely leaving a path of coding carnage that others are forced to clean up?"

I've never seen any evidence that the programmers I hate cleaning up after have ever, even once asked themselves this question.

Edit: Op is probably fine, and I appreciate everyone who takes the time to introspect on the topic.

Also, it's relevant to realize that there are only two types of code, and anyone capable of producing type two and leaving good commit logs will have their name cursed over and over by future developers:

The two types of code:

1. Partial solutions that no one uses, or even really remembers, after a few months.
2. Horrifying legacy solutions that may yet outlive the developers whose nightmares they haunt.

Sometimes a program in category 1 grows up into a program in category 2, like an eldritch horror caterpillar emerging from it's cocoon as an eldritch horror octopus porcupine.

Edit 2: But hey, I heard AI is going to take care of all the coding soon. So that will be nice.