What these kinds of takes underestimate is that before AI, a lot of people got into software engineering because they liked the cognitive challenge of coding. Back in our day, many of us who became SWEs started coding at a very young age, in our teens. We weren't even thinking about making a huge salary. We just wanted to do something challenging. Coding was nothing to brag about. They called us nerds and weirdos. With AI, everyone can churn out code. The nerds will either go deeper down the stack (e.g., into hardware) or find some other field where they can manifest their weirdness.