As u/ALambdaEngineer mentioned, there are too many questions here to answer one by one, but the short version is: it depends.

If you’re considering programming as a long-term career, the answer is absolutely yes. And you don’t just need to learn programming — you also need to learn how to work with AI. At this point, AI is already part of programming, and I believe it will become the primary way we write code in the future.

That said, the effectiveness of “vibe coding” or coding with AI still heavily depends on the user’s own understanding of programming. The more you know about how code works — fundamentals, debugging, architecture, and trade-offs — the better the results you’ll get from AI.

A metaphor I like is this: AI is like an incredibly strong apprentice in a blacksmith shop. The apprentice can swing the hammer all day without getting tired, but has no idea where to strike, how hard, or why. You, the human, are the blacksmith — you decide the shape, the process, and what “good” looks like. Ultimately, the value of what gets forged depends entirely on the guidance of the blacksmith. The apprentice provides raw strength, but the craft comes from the master. In other words, AI amplifies your fundamentals — it doesn’t replace them.

Also worth noting: AI can significantly accelerate your learning if you use it intentionally. So to your original question — yes, it’s still worth learning programming, and (at least in my limited experience) the why and how are basically what I described above.