The vanishing "Proof of Work" in software engineering

In 2023, I spent six months building a recommendation engine from scratch using vector search and manual indexing. Today, an entry-level dev can prompt a "weekend project" that looks 90% as good.

While I admit that productivity is up, the "signal" for talent is disappearing. Just by looking at resume its incredibly hard to identify difference between a Vibe Coder and a Real Software Engineer. Resumes these days looks more or less similar, same type of skill set, same AI language.

Everyone is building something, and consumers are very little. We are now in Era where builders' population is exploding but real architectural understanding and prowess is going down.

Is there a new "Proof of Work" for developers? If the "How" is automated, does the "Why" become the only signal left?

I'm curious what everyone else thinks about this "Skills Convergence" we are seeing.