I heartily disagree, grading hand-written homework serves as an early warning signal to students who don’t understand a concept* but want to. It’s also useful to keeners who like being told "you’re doing a good job, keep it up!" As well a warning to students who are so far behind that they can save time money and their GPA by dropping the class early.

And as a TA, I liked the income, and there’s a knock-on benefit that you’re learning to read with a critical eye which will help as a reviewer in the future.

* or in mine own obsolescent field, a measure of accuracy that indicates a student need think** longer before writing in the future

** I know, I know

I recently attended a "flipped classroom" for an anatomy course. Lectures were recorded and done prior to class as (not-for-credit) homework, and the traditional homework was ungraded, done in groups in place of lecture. Labs were essentially just mini practicals with multiple stations.

I had never taken an anatomy course prior, and thought that the flipped classroom worked very well for the younger students. People who hadn't quite developed the knack for studying were now forced into preparing before class, and active recall was embedded into the lab practicals so that the cumulative exam wasn't testing things they'd memorized and forgotten.

For me personally, as a student, homework has only ever been for grade-padding.

Sure, so mark it up, just don't grade it or count its completion in a way such that it counts toward final rankings vs other students. Offer your TA's services to those who want to use it to improve, not to evaluate their AI's output.