We're talking about a developer here so this analogy does not apply. If a developer doesn't actually develop anything, what exactly is he?

> We all depend on systems others built. Determining when that trade-off is worthwhile and recognizing when convenience turns into dependence are crucial.

I agree with this and that's exactly what OP is saying: you're now a cog in the LLM pipeline and nothing else.

If we lived in a saner world this would be purely a net positive but in our current society it simply means we'll get replaced for the cheaper alternative the second it becomes viable, making any dependence to it extremely risky.

It's not only for individuals too. What happens when our governments are now dependent on LLMs from these private corporations to function and they start the enshitification phase?

> We're talking about a developer here so this analogy does not apply. If a developer doesn't actually develop anything, what exactly is he?

A problem solver