"Code was never the hard part" is an insult to all programmers

The software development profession is in the midst of upheaval. Nobody knows how the AI revolution will play out in the end, but it is clear many aspects of work and life will be transformed—including programming. One of the comments I hear often lately boils down to “LLMs may be good at coding, but software was never the hard part” and “coding is easy, it's figuring out what to code that's hard”. I believe that's a gross insult to all programmers everywhere. If coding is easy... If coding is easy, how come programmers were in high demand, and have demanded large salaries for years (even before ZIRP)? Why was there so much stress, overwork and burnout even before AI started churning out 5000-line PRs? Why did companies seek 10x ninja rockstar coders and subject them to leetcode interviews—surely, a junior fresh out of college could churn out something if it's so easy? If coding is easy, why do we have doorstoppers like Clean Code and The Pragmatic Programmer? Is The Art of Computer…