[YZF]

Do you have an example of a large scale open source project where you would consider that entire code base to be high quality to your standards?

I think you're saying "my bar is so high you even can't understand where it is". I've worked with hundreds if not thousands of software developers, in many companies from startups to well established ones, including producing products that are what I'd call critical infrastructure that work reliably and do what they're supposed to do. I think I have a pretty decent idea of what an "average" software developer looks like and the overall shape of that curve, and similarly the architecture/design curve of various real world projects. I've built software on my own as a team of one and I've worked with teams of more than 100 people. Anyways, if your assertion is what I wrote above then clearly LLMs can't replace the mythical programmer that you are. But that's not what they're aiming to replace. As to "vibe coded projects" I already said that's not how I use LLMs and I agree that can easily end up like a pile of garbage (but still has its place in the new ecosystem).

The only real test of software is whether it does what it's supposed to do: reliably, is maintainable, can be extended and evolve without losing these attributes. If you've shipped systems that are used by many, work well, can evolve to support new features etc. - kudos to you.