What I can confidently tell you is writing a 2-sentence description of an application you want built does not work in any sense of the word. And, the difference between vibe coding and agentic engineering is vast.
Ok if this is the advice then I'm gonna look for a second opinion first. :)
More seriously: making any crap with AI is trivial and doesn't need learning. Making something better and more valuable than all the competitors *that have the same tools as you* is more involved, and relies 100% on knowing how to extract unique value from the tools. A part of that comes from your product/industry expertise (acquired before AI, much like your competitors), but unless you're a genius or in a greenfield, what will matter will be the other part where you have trained hard to be a better driver than your competition who just waited and watched a few youtubes.
If not, what are they even doing that they keep burning through piles of cash?
Not really. Models eat harnesses. Once the new model drops it invalidates lots of harness engineering people have done, and invalidates things they have learnt about how to efficiently use AI. The better models get the less need there is to need to know how to use them efficiently. They're also getting better at helping you use them efficiently.
It's weird. It's like no matter what you do, it's all just a waste of time.
or maybe double-down extra hard