That's a great point about how using the models may actually just be revealing our own incompetence, not causing it.
Maybe it's a quantity over quality issue. What if we're actually doing more of the thing - or at least we're guiding the process - than we would have if LLMs weren't available, which enables us to become better at recognizing how LLMs are actually beneficial for the task.
I remember the story of the two groups of pottery students, one tasked with making as many pots as possible, and the other with making one perfect pot. At the end of the day, the quantity group's pots were also higher quality than the quality group's single pot, simply because they had far more practice.
Maybe it's a quantity over quality issue. What if we're actually doing more of the thing - or at least we're guiding the process - than we would have if LLMs weren't available, which enables us to become better at recognizing how LLMs are actually beneficial for the task.
I remember the story of the two groups of pottery students, one tasked with making as many pots as possible, and the other with making one perfect pot. At the end of the day, the quantity group's pots were also higher quality than the quality group's single pot, simply because they had far more practice.
I know I code more with LLMs than I did before.