That is a wonderful question. I think you might be confusing "full vibe mode" with "using AI as a tool." I don't know where some code paths lead, so I can use AI to help ("who ingests .XYZ outputs? where are the tests?"). I don't always know if policies exist so I can ask ("do we have guards around XYZ going offline? where?"). After learning the lay of the land, I decide what we need and how it fits in with the current design, and ask the agent to verify that my understanding of the flow makes sense. I'll of course review all the code that comes out.

Sometimes in review I'll be surprised that my understanding was flawed and the AI subtly misled me during the discussion, but that's super rare and that's honestly still helping me learn and understand.

Frankly it's no different than if I were pair-coding with a teammate who happened to type 25,000 wpm, and who never takes a day off.

If you had an electrician that told you "Oh, I don't learn by running wires, but if I didn't immediately see where a wire lead, I'd ask someone who knew, and then I read wiring diagrams after the other person did the work", would you hire them?

I dunno, man. At some point an experienced electrician thinks about the blueprints and hires apprentices to run the wires.

When they stop working at the site when they make the blueprints -- or worse, only look at them, you should run, or at least make sure they're only involved in management, and not any important technical decision making.

They are not going to do a good job.

Software engineers used to mock non-coding architects for good reason.

Again, it sounds like you are against vibe coding ("stop working at the site") and so am I. There's a middle ground worth acknowledging: we've built an automatic wire pulling machine and there's no reason to hand-pull anymore unless it's a really weird bend. If you just load up the machine with a spool and come back in 24 hours, though, it'll make a mess of wire all over the place.

My point is that reading and inspection is not enough to learn.

I'm past the point in my career where I need to worry about learning C++. The rules of the system are what matter.

My point is that reading is not enough for learning the rules of the system. Again, architects that don't write code were mocked for the entire history of software engineering.

They were mocked because they became mentally detached from the actual rules of the system, and because they weren't in the trenches landing PRs. Trust me, I know, I worked with one. (He was also a huge proponent of AI)