Not reading the whole article but that pic makes me like him more... SciFi is fiction. An escape from reality. Maybe his books are successful because they help the readers do exactly that.
"Holding back" isn't really what they're doing. It's hard to justify attacking a school when doing so puts your already diminished resources at risk. Every time they launch a missile that launcher platform is highlighted for attack just like we've seen in Ukraine, but arguably even worse.
If you're going to risk losing valuable assets then you have to justify it with valuable targets.
(Not a programer) I've tried vibe coding some simple things for myself and gotten "decent" results. I couldn't imagine trying to make anything ready for commercial release. I've had to learn the basics of Python just to unfuck its mistakes...
Laughs in linux