I've been struggling to find a metaphor that captures what's been happening with the ZRR. OP keeps drafting and redrafting but the proposed new code never gets better and, at this point, it's significantly worse than the admittedly-less-than-optimal existing code. Rube Goldberg and Frankenstein both conjure up the cobbled-together unwieldiness of the draft, but not the experience of working through successive iterations only to realize that the hole OP has dug us into keeps getting bigger and bigger.
Then it came to me -- MR. FIXIT!! As a kid, I wasn't a big fan of Richard Scarry (The editions of his work that were around back then were pretty sexist, and I hate visual clutter), but, as a young urbanist, I did love Busytown (a vibrant, walkable, and diverse, 24/7 community!). And my favorite character was Mr. Fixit -- a fox in handyman's clothing who confidently rose to the challenge of fixing everything that was broken (and quite a few things that weren't). Here's a sample of his handiwork:
[Mr. Raccoon is having a bad day.]
"I'd better call Mr. Fixit," he said. . . .
"I will come back tomorrow to fix the leaks," said Mr. Fixit.
Moral of the Story: Sometimes the cure is worse than the disease. This is one of those times. It won't get better if we keep relying on Mr. Fixit to clean up the mess he's created.
Somewhat cheerier addendum: The fact that it takes many years to do something really badly doesn't mean that it has to take even longer to do something right.