My thought is they are trying to get rid of the property by fixing it up to make it look modern and hope a inexperienced buyer takes on the property not knowing the servility of the problem.

The more modern plastic drains can probably take whatever you can put down em, but the older metal ones (and the metal under sink parts) can corrode / start leaking. 

I am creating an updated F.I.R.E. board game that is going to incorporate all of the modern strategies to reaching F.I. that we know and love like: real estate investing (BRRRR, Wholesale, Flips, etc...), Index fund investing (think the 4% rule) and the wonderful "financial runway" strategy coined by Scott Trench.

Modern FHA loans do not allow you to ge rid of mortgage insurace once you get past 20% equity. 

I've seen really modern new construction sell around here for around $600k in a neighborhood of old average homes priced around $200.

The biggest difference is that you now have 75% of someones net worth and as a society we have decided it is a licensed activity....

However, that is of course a question your market needs to answer for you, not some random opinion from the internet - he he.If you are going to pony up for a new floor and pulling the plywood is part of that, one option there is to go old-school classic mixed with modern technology.

Updated and modernized What was the outcome?

This is the exact business model of Wilmington Savings Fund Society, Deutsche Bank, and the former business model of Morgan Stanley Home Mortgage. 

If not, however, we took a home that was stuck between the 70's and early 2000's to a clean, more modern-feeling home.