I think the only problem is that they're proprietary. If they were free software that everyone could use then we could compensate by making the problems harder.
It's not really any different to using high-level programming languages with extensive standard libraries versus doing everything in assembly language.
I think it's pretty different from using high-level languages. I'm not interested in a competition that would be decided before even starting by who has the best AI program.
I'm not interested in a competition that is decided by who has the best Python interpreter, but since we all have the same Python interpreter that isn't a problem.
Even if it is free, I have no interest in playing chess against a superhuman chess bot. You don’t even have to know how to play chess to use the moves the bots recommend and win against a grandmaster.
The line is blurry today, but we are moving into territory where humans will not be able to solve programming challenges that require under 200 lines of code faster than AI - we are slower to read and type. The AIs will likely get better at understanding the problems, requiring less help from humans and fewer attempts to find a solution.
At some point using a language model to compete in these kinds of programming contests will absolutely be like using a poker or chess bot to compete in those games.
Given how similar ChatGPT and siblings are to how chess bots work these days, I am somehow not surprised.