This point was recognized quite early. there is an influential article by Jack W. Reeves from 1992 [1] that looks at the manufacturing analogy and argues that "the code is the design" whereas the "manufacturing" is just the compilation and packaging (that is, super cheap and automated). I believe it‘s this line of thinking that inspired Agile practices, where software developers are seen as engineers rather than code monkeys.

[1]: https://www.developerdotstar.com/mag/articles/reeves_design....