Regardless of 'rules of programming', working on a game and getting it out there isn't a walk in the park. There are a lot of pressures and deadlines - and even with a huge team, documentation is often something which isn't a high priority. This is the case at nearly every games studio out there.
Game design docs, specifications are different - they're written by designers. Designers don't code tools, however.
Like I said, though, it's something I'm banging the drum about for you guys as I think we can do more here.
As far as polls go, we always look at them. Any poll out there usually gets seen by the team in some form.