I don’t think that’s true.

There are some cases where novel memory layouts are necessary. Especially in graphics programming where you need to, at times, cleverly lay out memory to use the most of every available buffer to create arbitrary visual effects.

Compilers can’t automatically create novel layouts.

That's 0.00001% of the effort of programming.

You also need custom hardware sometimes, like TPUs. That doesn't make software unimportant.

We've been waiting for a "sufficiently advanced compiler" for a very long time. If you're going to write programs for real computers, using real compilers, sometimes you have to care about such things. (If you're going to write programs for hypothetical computers, using hypothetical compilers, such constraints don't apply to you. Have fun running them, though...)