> with vibe coding you can't cast aside the AI after you've taken the initial step

Sure you can, why wouldn't you? Good models these days spit out architecture and code fairly indistinguishable from your average developer.

It's always hard to jump into an existing project and understand it all, but it's doable and in 2026 it's no harder to jump into a vibed project than it is to jump into any other project (with exceptions in both directions, of course).

You still have the code and can switch back to "fully human" (or any other point on the spectrum of human-ai) any time you want by just opening the same editor you would use if you cloned any other project.