Basically, the idea is that if something is hard to automate, then automate it and then it won't be hard to automate. Peasants have no bread? Let them eat cake!
I've encountered this a lot in the enterprise. Baby-step automations aren't allowed because they don't contribute to a Grand Unified Theory of Automation that will Solve All Our Problems. Worse, you wind up babysitting antiquated automation that should be replaced, and you're not allowed to replace it because it's already there and already works.