Speaking as someone who doesn't really like or do LLM-assisted coding either: at least try Gemini. ChatGPT is the absolute worst you could use. I was quite shocked when I compared the two on the same tasks. Gemini gets decent initial results you can build on. ChatGPT generates 99% absolutely unusable rubbish. The difference is so extreme, it's not even a competition anymore.

I now understand why Altman announced "Code Red" at OpenAI. If their tools don't catch up drastically, and fast, they'll be one for the history books soon. Wouldn't be the first time the big, central early mover in a new market suddenly disappears, steamrolled by the later entrants.

They work better with project context and access to tools, so yeah, the web interface is not their best foot forward.

That doesn't mean the agents are amazing, but they can be useful.

A simple "how do I access x in y framework in the intended way" shouldnt require any more context.

instead of telling me about z option it keeps hallucinating something that doesnt exist and even says its in the docs when it isnt.

Literally just wasting my time

I was in the same camp until a few months ago. I now think they're valid tools, like compilers. Not in the sense that everyone compares them (compilers made asm development a minuscule niche of development).

But in the sense that even today many people don't use compilers or static analysis tools. But that world is slowly shrinking.

Same for LLMs, the non LLM world will probably shrink.

You might be able to have a long and successful career without touching them for code development. Personally I'd rather check them out since tools are just tools.