Sadly yes. They probably have no other choice, because what else would they do with their time? Do the unthinkable and create gems other people would use? That would be too much work.
I am implementing a baremetal USB device stack in an embedded application and an having a really, really hard time.
The device in question is a decoder for sportive chronometry and uses lots of DSP for detecting and measuring when vehicles pass through the finish line.
I don't think the quote suggests that a programmer would mentally design a whole system before writing any code. As programmers, we are used to thinking in problems as steps needing resolution and that's exactly the 90% there.
When you're quickly prototyping to see what fits better as a solution to the problem you're facing, you must have already thought what are the requirements, what are the constraints, what would be a reasonable API given your use case. Poking around until you find a reasonable path forward means you have already defined which way is forwards.
I've used many times for small programs and such, even though I don't use any wine program on a regular basis.
However, I do play games on Proton all the time and everything mostly just works.
