> If an AI can do it instantly, it starts to feel like pointless busy work

If you can't solve the problem in a few seconds/minutes you will be able to just look up or copy/paste the answer for every AoC day from the associated solutions thread.

So in other words if you view it like that there was already a better "tool" to very easily "solve" any AoC problem: internet search.

If all you care about is getting a number to put into the website to get a checkmark that is.