[falsenapkin]

Programming != software engineering

> Software engineers who think they are better without AI may quickly be replaced with "lesser" software engineers who get things done much quicker.

Using AI to program is just ctrl-c ctrl-v software engineering, very clearly not the point of programming competitions. High level tools as you mention don't make you a better programmer, they make you a better software engineer.

I think the discussion you're raising is a good one it's just not relevant to a programming competition.