I don't favor this because then you get someones outdated view of the product, if at all. In an ideal world, yeah, you should get onboarding, and some walk throughs from the current developers. In reality this rarely happens in my experience. The code deployed to production is the ultimate source of the truth.
I recently witnessed an instance when a senior develoer heavily relied on others for information as you suggest. The team was failing to deliver the manager was incompetent. This senior developer I hired on with was made a scapegoat and blamed for slowing down the team and causing missed deadlines. This was absurd of course, but she got away with it, and he was fired.
I recently witnessed an instance when a senior develoer heavily relied on others for information as you suggest. The team was failing to deliver the manager was incompetent. This senior developer I hired on with was made a scapegoat and blamed for slowing down the team and causing missed deadlines. This was absurd of course, but she got away with it, and he was fired.