When I write the code I know what my intention is with each line. Sure I can (and do) make mistakes, but identifying those mistakes during debugging is relatively easy during debugging because I can clearly see the discrepancy between what I intended and what I did.

With an LLM I must first understand (usually really just infer and guess) its intention, which is much more difficult.

is the LLM not acting on your stated intent? maybe you can find a middle ground, where you can plan and act in small enough chunks that it doesn't start getting its "own" ideas about what to do, or how to do it

a chainsaw is a coarse tool and I liken it to vibe coding. you maintain at least some level of control, but the edges are rough and you might slice off more (or less) than you meant to. I want to model my usage more like a table saw, a precision instrument that can make the exact cut just as I planned it

> much more difficult

as in time consuming or error prone?

if it's just time consuming, it still might be faster than writing it yourself