The IDE integration question is interesting from a broader vibe coding perspective. Having Claude Code natively in Xcode means the feedback loop tightens — you can see SwiftUI previews alongside generated code, which partly addresses one of the big problems with pure vibe coding: the disconnect between "what was generated" and "what actually behaves correctly."
The emulator access question is key. Vibe coding for iOS without automated visual verification is a bit like building a UI blind — the AI generates syntactically valid code, but you don't know if the layout is broken until you run it. This is where the principle of "Automation must remain verifiable" from the Agile Vibe Coding Manifesto (https://agilevibecoding.org) becomes practical: the closer you can keep human-readable verification to the generation loop, the better the outputs.
For Xcode specifically: tight integration is only better if it still keeps you in the loop reviewing what gets generated, rather than fully deferring to the agent.