> How is this really different from careful prompt engineering, and an extensive proposal/review/refine process?
So different that those concepts don't even exist.
I don't have to carefully prompt my compiler in case it might misinterpret what I'm saying. My compiler comes with a precisely specified language.
I never, ever, review the output of my compiler.
> I don't have to carefully prompt my compiler in case it might misinterpret what I'm saying.
Yes you do. You give it flags, you give it ENV vars.
> My compiler comes with a precisely specified language.
No, it doesn't.
> I never, ever, review the output of my compiler.
Yes, that's the whole point of the exercise. Have you ever reviewed the -S output from GCC? No? So do you really know what your code is doing?