Realistically, though, even if AI doesn't only make slop, the amount of effort it takes to ensure that it's not slop is even harder to justify than maintaining a "clean" codebase manually used to be. More and more you'll see that "rough draft pass" ending up as shipped product.

Why? Well, it happened that way when manual tradecraft gave way to automated manufacturing in just about every other industry, so why should ours be exempt?