> Claude code does some of this by handing off the "explore" agent work to haiku.

That is not handing off to a specialized model, its just handing off to a lighter and interior model (compared to the parent model). That by itself can create issues like the lighter model not capturing all the data that the parent needs.

The idea is that we get specialized models that are better then general purpose models. But its rare for a specialized model to beat a strong general model.

There is a reason why we hear less about this idea of smaller expert models, because large strong models to the tasks just as good.

And if the tasks is repetitive to the point that specialization is useful, you can get into a situation that your better off having a program written for that reputative nature, then delegating to other models. And then have the main strong model, deal with the (semi)cleaned up data.