I don't think it is an illusion. It can remove a lot of barriers to entry for some people, and this is probably what you're seeing in the anecdata.
For example, my brother. He is what I'd refer to as 'tech-aligned' - he can and has written code before, but does not do it for a living and only ever wrote basic Python scripts every now and then to help with his actual work.
LLM's have enabled him to build out web apps in perhaps 1/5 of the time it would have taken him if he tried to learn and build them out from scratch. I don't think he would have even attempted it without an LLM.
Now it doesn't 'code everything' - he still has to massage the output to get what he wants, and there is still a learning curve to climb. But the spring-board that LLM's can give people, particularly those who don't have much experience in software development, should not be underestimated.
For example, my brother. He is what I'd refer to as 'tech-aligned' - he can and has written code before, but does not do it for a living and only ever wrote basic Python scripts every now and then to help with his actual work.
LLM's have enabled him to build out web apps in perhaps 1/5 of the time it would have taken him if he tried to learn and build them out from scratch. I don't think he would have even attempted it without an LLM.
Now it doesn't 'code everything' - he still has to massage the output to get what he wants, and there is still a learning curve to climb. But the spring-board that LLM's can give people, particularly those who don't have much experience in software development, should not be underestimated.