Write code in SharePoint 2010: CMS Wire covers both sides

3 Reasons You Could Write Custom Code for SharePoint 2010

3 Reasons to Not Write Custom Code for SharePoint 2010

There is probably only one really good reason to write code in SharePoint: and that is if you come along a limitation of SharePoint that requires code.

Sadly far to many SharePoint people are infrastructure experts who don't fully understand just how tricky code is, especially SharePoint code