Was it software devs? I've always had the impression it was management that didn't want to give us time to address technical debt, but just focus on shipping more features.
I've certainly taken time to address tech debt whenever I could. Which was not as often as I'd like.
When I did the EM role my biggest fights were pushing VPs to give the team more time. Features rushed because some VP told some board member it would be delivered by X. The first mistake is setting an aggressive schedule.