I've been programming professionally for decades. LLMs are extremely useful. At this point if you haven't figured out how to get value out of them, you're either holding them very wrong or you're being willfully ignorant.
You both can be right at the same time.
I think it depends which LLM tool you're using. If you're using an older, worse model (the kind that you can use for free), the experience is significantly more frustrating. On the other hand, I'd say that the current best models are very useful with a skilled operator.