Yes. I mostly believe this as well. I have little or no guilt about it. Especially since the person was not yet hired. But when I think about stuff like this happening at scale across tens of thousands of small private companies it starts to add up to a lot of missing entry level jobs.

I will keep automating away the drudgery in part because it is inevitable and I might as well be someone who profits from the master trend rather than be trampled by the trend.