I am conservative regarding AI driven coding but I still see tremendous value.

It makes me want to ask you: do you ever see helpful things from your colleagues at all?

Where I work there as certainly been that kind of discussions, "we need to use AI for this, because no offense but you are simply not fast enough". And this from people who do not understand software development and has never worked with it. They have only read the online stuff about 20X speeds and FOMO. (And my workplace is generally quite laid back and reasonable. I am sure many other places are much more aggressively steered.)

I notice on a daily basis even now that it can easily lead to bloat and unnecessary complexity. We will see if it can be fixed by using even stronger models or not.

Regarding the OP's dilemma. I am split. I enjoy both the process and the destination. With AI, the process is faster and less satisfying, but reaching the destination is satisfying in its own way, and enables certain professional ambitions.

I have always had other outlets for my "process" needs, and I believe I will spend more time on them in the future. Other hobbies. I love "artisanal coding" but that aspect was never really my job.

People want to keep doing what they enjoy as their fulltime profession, making a (good) living out of it. Perfectly understandable. But neither AI, powertools or image generation is preventing someone from doing craft coding, hand woodworking or drawing/painting in their spare time and enjoying it.

I love drawing but since it went out of business as a viable career long before I was born I have never felt the grief of losing it. With craft coding we happen to exist at the point in time where it suddenly gets significantly de-crafted.

Yes, those things should have been automated long ago, but they weren't, and now with coding agents much of them are.

I didn't grasp how quickly this would become a problem, but "juniors with a slop button" is indeed a reality now. And I lack the ability to let things slide.