I find the more good practices I add to my envision/scope/spec/build/test/deploy loops the happier I am with the outcomes.
I will say that I am finding the actual code to be somewhat ephemeral for me - the more precise the specifications are and generally the tighter and more elegant the design is, the less the code matters as a long term artifact.
I'm not at the "code is assembler" point yet - but I could see that with more, richer specs I could end up there. Of course the specs are then substantial, but declarative specs can be robust and unambigous (with sufficient read teaming review) and - like domain specific languages - reduce the accidental complexity of the syntax when compared to an implementation in a given language.
There are exceptions to all of this, but it's fascinating to see how it's evolving!