It's not about using the pen and paper before the build. It's about building prototypes before the actual product. There's nothing wrong with prototyping the so

It's not about using the pen and paper before the build. It's about building prototypes before the actual product. There's nothing wrong with prototyping the software using code and building it directly. The problem is when the prototype is being automatically elevated to a product rank when it starts working. In such case, everyone treats the prototype as it were a product, but in reality it's still a prototype. So instead of using pen & paper, just use the code to prototype things, because it's 2022 and it's possible to do so. Just make sure to properly transform the prototype into a full-fledged product when the time comes, possibly by rewriting the implementation, maybe even change the implementation language (e.g. Python for prototyping, C++ for implementation).