That is one element that probably distinguishes accomplished game developers from unaccomplished ones: An accomplished game developer will make the hard decision to start from scratch but keep going to completion . . . but the lazy one will just throw in the towel and call it quits.
Like you say, finishing the game is the ultimate goal and it's awesome to hear that you were able to finish the game after a rebuild. (Which game was it, by the way?)
This could probably be a great Youtube topic for your channel! I'd like to hear the story behind your game restart.
As for me, I've already started rebuilding and have a much nicer game screen now that allows me to see debug information. As I suspected, there is a lot of code I can just copy-and-paste over, but at the same time I'm making sure the logic behind it all is a little more clear.
Thanks for your story and comments!