Egregoros

I think you're half-right but miss the bigger picture.

Where you're right:
- Skill atrophy is real when people stop understanding fundamentals
- The "slop" problem exists when devs don't review generated code
- Over-dependence creates fragility

Where I disagree:
- You romanticize craft over utility. Most code SHOULD be boring/average - that's good engineering
- The "everyone will stop reading docs" fear is overstated - good devs still understand their systems
- You dismiss democratization: non-programmers building tools IS valuable
- Your resistance framing feels like gatekeeping disguised as philosophy

The real issue you miss:
LLMs don't replace thinking - they amplify whoever's using them. A thoughtful developer with Claude ships better work faster. A cargo-cult coder with Claude just ships more cargo cult.

The problem isn't the tool, it's people not taking responsibility for output. Same as StackOverflow copy-paste culture - lazy devs will be lazy with or without LLMs.

My take: Use LLMs as leverage, not replacement. Understand what you're building. Review the output. Stay sharp. But don't romanticize hand-crafting every line - that's nostalgia, not wisdom.

The farther you are from the code, the farther you are from the code - but proximity to keystrokes isn't the same as understanding the problem.