The problem is that higher performing devices will still exist. Those engineers will probably keep using performant devices and their managers will certainly keep buying them.

We'll probably end up in an even more bifurcated world where the well off have access to lot of great products and services that most of humanity is increasingly unable to access.

I'm not optimistic that this would be the outcome. You likely will just have poor running software instead. After all, a significant part of the world is already running lower powered devices on terrible connection speeds (such as many parts of Africa).

I don't think it's going to happen in this day and age. Some smart people will but most barley know how to write there own code let alone write efficient code

At the same time, AI has made it easier than ever to produce inefficient code, so I expect to rather see an explosion of less efficient software.

Why are you celebrating compute becoming more expensive? Do you actually think it will be good?

I think the actual outcome is they will expect you to rent servers to conduct all your computing on and your phone and pc will be a dumb terminal.

Good luck with that.