I've taught undergraduates and graduates how to code. I've contributed to Open Source projects. I'm a researcher and write research code with other people who write research code.

You could say I've seen A LOT of poorly written human generated code.

Yet, I still trust it more. Why? Well one of the big reasons is exactly what we're joking about. I can trust a human to iterate. Lack of iteration would be fine if everything was containerized and code operates in an unchanging environment[0]. But in the real world, code needs to be iterated on, constantly. Good code doesn't exist. If it does exist, it doesn't stay good for long.

Another major problem is that AI generates code that optimizes for human preference, not correctness. Even the terrible students who were just doing enough to scrape by weren't trying to mask mistakes[1], but were still optimizing for correctness, even if it was the bare minimum. I can still walk through that code with the human and we can figure out what went wrong. I can ask the human about the code and I can tell a lot by their explanation, even if they make mistakes[2]. I can't trust the AI to tell an accurate account of even its own code because it doesn't actually understand. Even the dumb human has a much larger context window. They can see all the code. They can actually talk to me and try to figure out the intent. They will challenge me if I'm wrong! And for the love of god, I'm going to throw them out if they are just constantly showering me with praise and telling me how much of a genius I am. I don't want to work with someone where I feel like at any moment they're going to start trying to sell me a used car.

There's a lot of reasons, more than I list here. Do I still prompt LLMs and use them while I write code? Of course. Do I trust it to write code? Fuck no. I know it isn't trivial to see that middle ground if all you do is vibe code or hate writing code so much you just want to outsource it, but there's a lot of room here between having some assistant and having AI write code. Like the OP suggests, someone has got to write that 10-20%. That doesn't mean I've saved 80% of my time, I maybe saved 20%. Pareto is a bitch.

[0] Ever hear of "code rot?"

[1] Well... I'd rightfully dock points if they wrote obfuscated code...

[2] A critical skill of an expert in any subject is the ability to identify other experts. https://xkcd.com/451/

> Lack of iteration

What makes you think that agents can't iterate?

> I'm going to throw them out if they are just constantly showering me with praise and telling me how much of a genius I am

You can tell the agent to have the persona of an arrogant ass if you prefer it.