You know, the only thing I get more sure of over the years is that defining a "good programmer" is hard

Now, I can't tell if you're being facetious or not, but if one seriously conflates being able to write a binary tree with knowing how to program... they're at least making defining the antonym a bit easier.

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Also no one is saying ChatGPT is "so great" in this specific case, if anything the point is that ChatGPT can do impressive things, but again, regurgitating leetcode answers isn't one of them.

I’m not trying to be mean but “conflating” is not the same as “necessary.” There is a very common notion of “necessary but not sufficient”. Yes, I think if you don’t know how to make a binary tree, you don’t know much about programming. The converse is not true.

I view general algorithm problems as a "programming subfield", just like graphics/frontend/AI are. Certain coding techniques are overrepresented in each subfield, and each subfield has fundamental "base code", design paradigms, methods of testing, need-to-know algorithms, and canonical examples.