I think humans are pretty good at it with small teams and the right structure. There are definitely dysfunctional orgs as you describe where humans produce garbage code yes. I blame the org for that, not the humans.
As to what defines clarity, yes of course, like the word quality this is very hard to define, but we can certainly recognise when it was not considered.
I think it is a goal worth striving for though, and abandoning code standards because we now have AI helpers is stupid and self-defeating, even if we think they are very capable and will improve.
The end of history has not in fact arrived with generative AI, we still have to maintain software after.
As to what defines clarity, yes of course, like the word quality this is very hard to define, but we can certainly recognise when it was not considered.
I think it is a goal worth striving for though, and abandoning code standards because we now have AI helpers is stupid and self-defeating, even if we think they are very capable and will improve.
The end of history has not in fact arrived with generative AI, we still have to maintain software after.