I think the key is that you are supposed to automate whatever feels boring for you, and that should leave you more time to engage in activities that you actually feel joy for.
If your hobby is programming by all means disable AI assistance and spend hours coding, but for some people it might feel like a chore sometimes or just be their day job. Allowing them to automate that process further so that they can have more free time reading a book or doing woodworking doesn't feel that bad.
> I think the key is that you are supposed to automate whatever feels boring for you
I disagree with that. The problem is, if you really think about it, even some of the initially boring tasks can be interesting if understood in a certain light, and the fact that we couldn't automate them before meant that we had the opportunity to stumble upon them.
Also, there is also satisfaction for many people to finally finish a task that they really slaved over.
Automating wasn't a problem when computers did only truly rote tasks. But AI spilled over into the creative domain and people should not automate even the boring parts of that because there are hidden rewards to sticking through those, because they are not truly as rote as they seem to be.
Automating what's boring to spend more time on what brings you joy is a great idea. But using AI for that end seems counterproductive, as it seems to be reducing productivity rather than enhancing it.
A similar narrative, that we can automate tedium and focus on joy as a society are also kneecapped by the fact that these tools are being used to automate people out of jobs. Those people are not being supported by the tools that are eliminating their paid positions, leaving them with actually 0 time to enjoy their lives. It also further empowers the employers in the employer-employee relationship which was already being abused to hell and back.
If your hobby is programming by all means disable AI assistance and spend hours coding, but for some people it might feel like a chore sometimes or just be their day job. Allowing them to automate that process further so that they can have more free time reading a book or doing woodworking doesn't feel that bad.