The approach of treating the LLMs like a junior engineer that is uninterested in learning seems to be the best advice, and correctly leverages the existing intuitions of experienced engineers.

Spend more time on interfaces and test suites. Let the AI toil away making the implementation work according to your spec. Not implementing the interface is a wrong answer, not passing the tests is a wrong answer.

If you've worked in software long enough you will have encountered people who are uninterested in learning or uncoachable for whatever reason. That is all of the LLMs too. If the LLM doesn't get it, don't waste your time; it will probably never get it. You need to try a different model or get another human involved, same as you would for an incompetent and uncoachable human.

As an aside: my advice to junior engineers is to show off your wetware, demonstrate learning and adaptation at runtime. The models can't do that yet.