Maybe so, but for the good shots by the thinking guy, I suspect he would derive longer term emotional gratification from how well they came out. Effort and investment adds to the experience.

Making things easy is good as long as it is not too easy, then it's Spotify muzak.

The real question is who can sell their photos and for how much profit. Even muzak has its market of satisfied customers.

Of course "manual" programming can always be a hobby that provides emotional gratification, but that's not what dominates the economy.