I think you might have cause and effect mixed up a bit there. I’ve absolutely worked with people who left because they were unappreciated, and they were unappreciated because they wrote unmaintainable code and were defensive about it. Being a quitter and writing shitty code are very compatible personality traits.
To an extent then, if the original authors are still around, they were either appreciated or feared, but you probably won’t know which just from the interview. If they split it may be good riddance.
I do have a couple of mystery cases where I believe that someone who previously thought very highly of their own work had a change of heart, and realizing what they’ve done and how hard it would be to fix it, have decided it would be easier to start over someplace else. That may be true but I would recommend that it’s a character building exercise if you at least try to clean up your mess before leaving. There will be other messes, from other blind spots.
To an extent then, if the original authors are still around, they were either appreciated or feared, but you probably won’t know which just from the interview. If they split it may be good riddance.
I do have a couple of mystery cases where I believe that someone who previously thought very highly of their own work had a change of heart, and realizing what they’ve done and how hard it would be to fix it, have decided it would be easier to start over someplace else. That may be true but I would recommend that it’s a character building exercise if you at least try to clean up your mess before leaving. There will be other messes, from other blind spots.