I've always tried to write code for future maintainers first. That is often me.

The 1s and 0s are meant to be used, the code is meant to be read

That's the difference to me. Code is used as instructions to computers. Written human language is used to to communicate thoughts, ideas, feelings to other humans.

I disagree with the premise that "we" are all OK with AI slop computer code however. Even if it's just for consumption by machines, for at least some developers it is a creative outlet.