I think this is true, at least the underlying concept. Yea the program in code does exist as a thing that will do exactly what it says in a deterministic (most

I think this is true, at least the underlying concept. Yea the program in code does exist as a thing that will do exactly what it says in a deterministic (mostly? lol) fashion, since it's, you know, a computer. But a team's ability to modify the code, to fix inevitable problems or add new features, depends on the mental model of the code that exists in their head(s). That's also why there's a massive increase in complexity of a project as soon as it gets too big to fit inside one person's head.