<< So what’s the ideal “middle ground” in this situation?

Putting all this in 2nd paragraph so that you can skip it if you think 'coding' is your primary portion of your job.

I suppose I am in a mildly privileged position in a sense that my work is a weird intersection of tech, finance, and comprehension. In other words, I don't code much, but I absolutely benefit from now being able to play with various projects I would otherwise have no business touching without a bigger support team.

I don't want to invoke Accelenrando, but the muscle imagery and analogy fits. I will give an example. I recently decided to pick up Go for a project ( have experience in some other languages, but I will still be starting fresh ). I could have codex build me what I want, but I am purposefully taking it slow so that I can learn the foundation so that I can have a frame of reference ( because I assume it won't be the only go project for me ).

Otoh, most of my one off python scripts I barely even skim anymore. And honestly,that is the part that scares me more.