Hobbyist programming expertise unaffected
Genuine curiosity in learning how stuff works, not necessarily for financial gain, e.g., from a salary or using web to deliver ads
No real "pressure" for hobbyist to use "AI"
IMO as end user, some of the best software available was originally written by a single unpaid author, not salaried teams
Some of the worst software ever written was produced by overpaid teams
Hobbyists may use relatively old, handwritten code to learn from
That's not necessarily bad. Software quality has declined over time