> LLMs will just find the snippets of code that matches somehow

This suggests a huge gap in your understanding of LLMs if we are to take this literally.

> LLM programming, when first started, was more about a direct english to finished code translation

There is no direct english to finished code translation. A prompt like "write me a todo app" has infinitely many codes it maps to with different tradeoffs and which appeal to different people. Even if LLMs never made any coding mistakes, there is no function that maps a statement like that to specific pieces of code unless you're making completely arbitrary choices like the axiom of choice.

So we're left with the fact that we have to specify what we want. And at that LLMs do exceptionally well.