On: Signs you’re working in a feature factory (2016)

[tomnipotent]

These are all expected and desirable outcomes. Sometimes technical debt is not worth paying off until your hand is forced, like in these examples.

A large part of management is making the implicit explicit, and communicating the outcome of these efforts.

None of these examples have anything to do with refactoring code, specifically, and the challenges faced within that work.

[notyourday → tomnipotent]

The first sentence contradicts the other two and it contradicts the previous position where refactoring was done implicitly without anyone above in the org being aware of it.

[tomnipotent → notyourday]

See my last sentence. The OP listed examples of process failure, not refactoring.