Nah; the only advantage that a software engineer has is that if they are experienced they've probably just a little bit bright. But their role will probably change to something other than a software engineer. Bright valuable people that care and are engaged are rare anyway. They may transition to a different role slowly (e.g. Product, QA, BA, etc) because they still offer value and know the domain, but it isn't traditional SWE. That's been disrupted by AI; I don't want it to be true and I'm hoping for something else; but reality is staring us in the face at the moment and it isn't fair to people to talk platitudes anymore. The fact that you have to write an article like this feels like defensive framing to me + illustrates what happens once a skill is devalued by people/society due to disruption; it proves to me where this is all heading.

My thought on why people especially juniors are just delivering slop: Why bother with quality? Why bother with the craft? When it will be disrupted by the next tool/AI model/etc in the next few years anyway? Just think short term - will this slop get you through the PR and tick a short term box? If so success - might not have a job long term anyway due to all the AI stuff. In fact if I keep ticking boxes I'm more likely to last than the other person given more job incentives. Just get paid today.

In your example a QA that is skilled at testing websites should pick up CORS issues for example. And the models will keep getting better and eventually give them harnesses too - and we SWE will slowly automate everything around this because the only lifeboat left for your career is to cash out hopefully by disrupting yourself (no unions, professional bodies, etc).