Can architecture drift be prevented entirely?
No, and preventing it is the wrong goal, because some divergence is legitimate evolution. The achievable goal is to make every divergence visible quickly, so it becomes a deliberate decision to accept or revert rather than something discovered during an incident.
From Architecture drift: what it is and how to catch it, published 9 August 2026. That article is where the reasoning behind this answer is set out, including what it does not cover.