It might not have been. But it's not hard to see that whatever productivity coefficient multiplier llms brings, it's being dwarfed by how much easier it is to publish projects that only look good on the surface.

While it's a great tool in the hands of capable and well intentioned people, there's not a world out there where the average quality of software goes up.

Underrated comment.

Even if AI with autonomous agentic development made something that worked at the average of code quality, I wonder if the code might be a little more sturdy, predictable, and the compromise is a little more verbose for the level that works for the AI to manage it.

Humans would then help oversee the input, insight, and extension and improvement above and below that.

AI could be a baseline.