> stomach the dull and hard work of actually being creative

This strikes me as the opposite of what I experience when I say I'm "feeling creative", then everything comes easy. At least in the context of programming, making music, doing 3D animation and some other topics. If it's "dull and hard work" it's because I'm not feeling "creative" at all, when "creative mode" is on in my brain, there is nothing that feels neither dull nor hard. Maybe it works differently for others.

What sets you apart from millions of manual programmers?

I've been a professional programmer for 8+ years now. I've stomached that life. I've made things people used and paid for.

If I can do that typing one line at a time, I can do it _way_ faster with AI.

You may be mistaking some ai dev with non, because it doesn't have tell tails