Exactly this for me as well. When I was a SWE I thought what I loved was problem solving. So after many years of doing that I decided to move upsteam and took Product roles so that I can identify and address big business problems. It was only after I switched that I realized that I was not in love with problem solving. I was in love with art. Programming was art of me.
I kept at it on the side as a hobby. But stacks evolved and I was left behind. Now with AI it's back on.
When we understand that AI allows the spec to be in English (or any natural language), we might stop attempting to build "structured english" for spec.
While most here are aligned with your perspective, and for good reasons, let me offer an alternate perspective. Today AI can take the goal and create a workflow for it. Something that orgs pay for in SaaS solutions.
AI does it imperfectly today, but if you have had to bet, would you bet that it gets better or worse? I would bet that it will improve, and as it is often with tech, at exponential rate. Then we would seen any workflow described in plain language and minutes see great software churned out. It might be a questions of when (not if) that happens. And are you prepared for that state of affairs?
I’m thankfully at a stage of my career where I’m not afraid to interrupt the meeting and ask questions. Earlier in my career the thought would terrify me. In hindsight if I were bold it would have actually helped half the room. I encourage you to do it. These days: Who is Robert? What does Communications dept do? What has changed since last review? What metrics did the strategy move? What is the outcome you want from this meeting? Next time can we do email?
Are they all exactly the same? Target? Safeway? Food4Less? Do you see any differentiation between these? Would it be a reasonable assumption that conversations like, "I like to go to Target over Safeway because..." happens?
I kept at it on the side as a hobby. But stacks evolved and I was left behind. Now with AI it's back on.