Takes me back more than fifty(!) years to reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. It’s a technically effective solution to a problem that’ll satisfy some and appal others (incidentally I’m in the latter camp).
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I expect it was simply the cheapest option. 
Or the only option…
Really?
Who can tell…?
Could have moved the electrical conduit and covered the pipes in a narrow box or cupboard if no other direction was possible.
Chasing in requires extra work(and expense but if functional fittings are not decorative, or going for an industrial style, they are better hidden.
(Goes for many things! 
)
Personal aesthetics aside, exposing poorly executed alterations and repairs is usually a warning to look for other corners cut, some of which may possibly be dangerous.
Our son drove over from Verbier to spend time with us last week. He’s had to go back today because of work commitments. Good to have some time though. 
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The Guardian – Tom Gauld on a gripping read - cartoon.
When a student of architecture 60 years ago, ‘The Agony and the Ecstasy’, a novel about Michelangelo by Irving Stone, had just been published and which I couldn’t put down until I finished reading it 3 days later, ignoring lectures & studio work! I think I did eat, now and again.
Haven’t come across anything since that captured me so much.
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I have never spent that long colouring in anything 
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Probably five years old when I learnt one of my earliest life lessons via my grandfather and a cowboy colouring book.
I was very carefully colouring in a portrait of a cowboy with a black hat when my grandfather said, ‘He’s got a black hat so he must be a baddie, why don’t you give him a scar?"
"But there isn’t a scar in the picture.’"
“Doesn’t matter, you can just draw one…”
And I did!
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My late learnt lesson is “run the dishwasher twice!” Fatigue is my bugbear, like many others with chronic conditions. And after a big meal with friends a huge pile of crockery that needs scraping/rinsing can feel like Mount Everest. So run the dishwasher twice! Not ecologically sound, but needs must.
The principal can apply to lots of things that one does from conscientious habit.
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Interesting.
I’m still learning about dishwashers, which I consider part of a cleaning realm that is only entered, when what has been ‘cleaned’ is now dirtier than before (in our household principally windows and stainless steel kitchen work surfaces).
However, returning to your point, my SiL visiting from JHB, where every white woman is a dishwasher authority, told us that our so-called eco cycle was actually less effective than another which didn’t consume more water.
In pre-dishwasher days, my way of winding down after a big dinner with friends was to meticulously and highly systematically hand-wash everything. In such situations the dishwasher is of little personal help as I can’t just go bed after an intensive evening of cooking and conversation.
I think this a common problem in the resto trade, where many people smoke lots of dope at the end of a shift simply in order to wind down
I would suggest the best way to wash dishes but it could start a war.
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In the resto trade you have a plongeur who does nothing but wash dishes , in Paris he (always a he) is usually from sub-Saharan Africa and has the strength of 10 men, and a huge family.
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Don’t disagree but nevertheless, at least within my experience (yes, it might seem improbable, but I’ve worked in catering from waiter to sommelier and, only last Thursday organised and ran the bar for my wife’s latest solo expo). At the end of the day, or rather evening there’s usually a camaraderie of the spliffs because everyone has worked bloody hard in a shared team task and everyone needs to wind down together.
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While looking for something, I found something else, namely my long lost 16-year-old Renault Clio 111’s handbook in its folder, including the radio instruction booklet, all in pristine condition, unlike my car.
Opened the booklet and learned to use the equalizer for adjusting the sound quality which was excellent and surprisingly impressive for a 16-year-old car sound system. New life has entered my 210,000 kms old faithful, thumping out happy rock-piano CD music.
I don’t recall reading the car handbook much although I do recollect using it once to find out how to extract the spare wheel from the boot!
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Never get rid of the car. As long as you have space, keep it as a fully surround sound experience room with comfort seating 
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I only use earbuds and earphones for music, but in the car, it sounds equally as good without, so maybe the car surround sound explains that, as you suggest.
I’m keeping the car so long as it’s reliable. But Renault emailed me to say they are ‘interested’ in my car, and proposed part-exchange. We shall see!
A lot is due to the sound deadening materials used in cars. The average lounge has none of this so there is a mish mash of reflected sound ariving at different times in the listeners ears making it sound muddled. So called hifi buffs spend thousands on high end equipment but don’t treat the room accoustics.
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My current TV, in its settings menu, asks if it has been fixed to a wall or placed on a surface, and you choose which. This presumably adjusts the sound quality to suit. Can’t say that I hear much difference between the two. There are other sound options which only really allow the sound to be adequately/comfortably audible, but is basically useless for music.
I’ve toyed with the idea of a Bluetooth adapter for the TV so I can listen with Bluetooth buds or phones. Not sure that this will improve anything though.