[midasz]

If you think writing code is the most important, or even the largest part of being a (senior) software engineer - sure. In my experience it's not though. It's being able to communicate clearly, understanding and translating requirements (sometimes to code), knowing boundaries and saying no, deep understanding of systems and knowing how to debug them.

Transitioning from junior to medior (for example) is much more than writing x% better code. It's the process of falling and getting back up. Being stumped and learning when to ask for help (and not just technical, what if the spec is 'wrong'?).

I definitely worry that we are leaving future generations in the dust and that there'll be an experience gap. It's a disservice to take away something from them that we enjoyed ourselves.

No sane company should run on juniors, they're an investment.

[DonsDiscountGas]

Hm, those are good points, but many of those skills transfer from other fields. So a dev with 10 years experience is still worth a lot more than a new grad, but if somebody with 10 years experience in anything (as opposed to just software) can now be a programmer it's still a much smaller barrier.