I give Codex a try with every new version, and we don't match, so this isn't true for everyone.

Claude would need to be much more expensive for me to switch.

People be saying these things with certainity. 99% of the time one has just inspired more confidence through sycophancy, or just good varience in outputs for a session/prompt.

Slop heads be swearing by one slot machine one week and swearing it off the next like an addicted gambler describing their favorite slot machines from week to week.

This isn't a coincidence, these companies hire UX designers from mobile gaming and online gambling to help engineer their addictiveness.

Its all in your head, and the output is no matter what always going to be worse than learning how to do something yourself and putting care into it.

Handmade watches > mass manufactured watches. There's nothing special about the skills needed for the guy who runs a conveyer belt at a watch manufacturer in China. The watch made by the guy who makes one watch a month in Switzerland is prized and beloved.