> Is there a way to meaningfully be wary of it?

Refusing to participate. May involve accepting lower productive output and thus "standard of living".

Considering how society-at-large handled the smartphone, I can definitely see concern for general cognitive decline as a result of externalizing ever more mental activity to machines. As well as the concerns voiced by Frank Herbert in the concept of Butlerian Jihad.

> There was a point when being a dev required things like download size optimization and performance profiling. How many devs today even conceptually know of those, yet alone do them?

Way too few, with a general decline of quality and much waste as a result.

To me, "be wary" means interrogate the intentions and motives of the people boosting certain technologies and applications of said tech.

Don't consume industry "show-and-tells" unexamined.

For me it doesn't mean "don't use AI coding tools", but rather when I do use them I should make sure I'm thinking about my own "agency" as it relates to the work I'm doing and ultimately accountable for. How do I ensure I'm centering my own skills as I use these tools and not off-loading "too much"? What do I consider "too much"?

It's going to be different for everyone.

Those things are still very important at my workplace. Particularly performance profiling.