>but I also wonder if this is the same thing that assembly language programmers said about compilers

But as a programmer writing C code, you're still building out the software by hand. You're having to read and write a slightly higher level encoding of the software.

With vibe coding, you don't even deal with encodings. You just prompt and move on.

I've wondered if people who write detailed specs, are overly detailed, are in a regulated industry, or even work with offshore teams have success more quickly simply they start with that behavior. Maybe they have a tendency to dwell before moving on which may be slightly more iterative than someone who vibecodes straight through.