I mean, I think the truth is somewhere in the middle, with a sliding-scale that moves with time.

I got limited access to the internet in the Netscape Navigator era, and while it was absolutely awesome, until around 2010, maybe 2015 I maintained that for technical learning, the best quality materials were all printed books (well, aside from various newsgroups where you had access to various experts). I think the high barrier to entry and significant effort that it required were a pretty good junk filter.

I suspect the same is true of LLMs. You're right, they're right, to various degrees, and it's changing in various ways as time goes on.

Ca 1994 was the tipping point for me, when I could find research papers in minutes that I wouldn't even know about if I had to rely on my university library.