There are however human developers that have built enough general and project-specific expertise to be able to answer these open-ended, poorly-defined requests. In fact, given how often that happens, maybe that’s at the core of what we’re being paid for.

But if the business doesn’t know the goals, is it really adding any value to go fulfill poorly defined requests like “make it better”?

AI tools can also take a swing at that kind of thing. But without a product/business intent it’s just shooting in the dark, whether human or AI.

I have to be honest, I've heard of these famed "10x" developers, but when I come close to one I only ever find "hacks" with a brittle understanding of a single architecture.