"decisions after snorting a long line of social-media-psychosis and TED talks."

And yet - they are the one's paying you and everyone else somehow?

I think you might be missing something fundamental, start by considering that what is 'good software' is not an intrinsic measure, but a measure of what it does.

The only reason we really need 'intrinsically good' software, is if it's very long lived and a ton of people are going to come to depend on it.

People trying to make oak furniture when in most cases what we want is IKEA.

That said - AI or no AI - there's no excuse for not keeping a grip on things, whatever kind of 'grip' that might be.