> But the way it is going, if AI is writing all the code and no human needs to read it anymore, does it really need to be maintainable?

It's more important than ever, because code is just a way of expressing intent. If the code becomes overly complex, it de-coheres, and intent is lost across the system you are building.

This is why vibe coded projects turn into slop and eventually stop iterating: at some point that actual intent is too vague and contradictory because of the many layers of code that have been added.