Can we still say things like "GCC eliminates the dead code for us so we can leave it written this way", like we did decades ago, or where are the goalposts? >

Can we still say things like "GCC eliminates the dead code for us so we can leave it written this way", like we did decades ago, or where are the goalposts? > When you drove from X to Y, you did it, not the car. Really? Even if it's a self-driving car where you just punched where you want to go, into an app?