> Most code before LLMs was human slop, not the carefully crafted artisanal blocks of fine braces you claim

Agreed most code from the past is to be kind very ordinary and is filled with many code smells, but they do get some or many things right.

> AI today produces better slop than most devs ever did. And LLMs are getting better - humans were never on an upward general trajectory.

You fail to make the distinction between the engineers of the past and the audience who vibe codes of today. The later dont know the mosts of best or good practices.

Thats a big difference, those that know NOTHING about software engineering those that know something.

AI only generates what it is told, and guess what garbage in garbage out, because non software engineers dont know or think about the basics.