Like the author, I subscribe to the less strict view that TDD isn't necessarily about writing the test first, but rather about having test play some part in how the code takes shape.
Unlike the author, I absolutely believe that tests are about design. More specifically, they're about identifying coupling so that you can reduce it. The function being "awkward" to use is part of it, but code which is hard to test is almost always going to be hard to maintain.
If you do this for enough time, you should naturally start to write code that is less and less tightly coupled. At that point, the value of tests as a design canary decreases, but never completely goes away.
This is all broad generalizations. Individual vigilance and giving-a-fuck matter more than anything else. But if you show me some random code, and it's spaghetti, I'll bet every single time that the author doesn't test.
Unlike the author, I absolutely believe that tests are about design. More specifically, they're about identifying coupling so that you can reduce it. The function being "awkward" to use is part of it, but code which is hard to test is almost always going to be hard to maintain.
If you do this for enough time, you should naturally start to write code that is less and less tightly coupled. At that point, the value of tests as a design canary decreases, but never completely goes away.
This is all broad generalizations. Individual vigilance and giving-a-fuck matter more than anything else. But if you show me some random code, and it's spaghetti, I'll bet every single time that the author doesn't test.