Of course that just leads to: what’s the best way to achieve that goal? Through elegant code or adding lots of tests? Which is a debate from long before LLMs existed.

That said, I have to recognize that this may be partially because of my personality. I don't "do great" at mixers like this. I'd rather go home and be with my family than drink beer—regardless of label—in a corporate setting. People describe me as charismatic and engaging one-on-one, but I'm awkward and unhappy at a big crowd event.

But there are other people whom I think get a lot of value and connections out of them! So it's kinda hard for me to say.

Downgrades in quality, though, stick out like a sore thumb. "I didn't really like going to these things before, but at least they had good beer." It can also be a real "it's the thought that counts" sort of thing. When you show me that you're willing to spend less on me, it sends a signal, sometimes stronger than if you'd never spent anything on me in the first place.

It's just much more visually interesting than a page full of perfect burgers. Each one looks like a unique thing from the real world; they don't "look AI", as the kids say these days.

To your point, yeah, I mostly don't want AI to be innovative unless I'm asking for it to be. In fact, I spend much more time asking it "is that a conventional/idiomatic choice?" (usually when I'm working on a platform I'm not super experienced with) than I do saying "hey, be more innovative."