"because the underlying lib wasn't coded like the original AI pretended it was"

So, the models ARE dumb. They just are very good at finding patterns in their training data. I mean, when they code minecraft clones, it is not because they can cook up how to write minecraft clones, rather, their training data includes a lot of minecraft-like games code, and they just reuse that.

Yes this is the reason they fail miserably when it comes to novel problems.