Exactly. Elegant code requires domain expertise, which no one has on during the first attempt.

Strident attempts at elegance during the first domain-expertise-free try tend to just result in different kinds of shitty code.

Of course, experienced programmers can obviously achieve lower shittiness, from day one.

But truly elegant code requires exploring the domain, and learning what works there.

Shitty or barely-good-enough code often walks so that elegant code can someday replace it.