I agree, and I think one can put in more effort on a project and get a better result, especially if the prompter is already an experienced software developer. For example on one toy project I requested the use of ADTs (algebraic data types), strict linting and code formatting at every commit, tests, frequent code review rounds, and a strong initial plan which led to a very solid personal-use project.

Similar strategy can help smaller local models achieve greater results too. Small steps + many guardrails.