Yup, I can definitely imagine that it's different if you're working directly for customers and have the freedom to do things however you want to do them as long as you still make a living.
I don't think that is true. If you have the creative control, and LLMs suck the joy out of programming, then you and I have very different ideas about what that joy was in the first place. I enjoy programming both on a very high and a very low level, and both are more fun with LLMs. On the low-level, you can use that to create the building blocks that the LLM then just has to combine. And on the high-level, you can use that to steer the design in a way the LLM would never be able to, but with the help of the LLM you can connect that high-level design much faster to the low-level building blocks.
Maybe try using them differently (I tend to use them like static analyzers I can yell at/argue with, and honestly less straining than trying to parse a Coverity report), or just avoid them.
Mental health is more important than 20% gain or loss (depending on which study supports your prejudices) in productivity.
