As someone who is top x% on Leetcode (I think I also held the longest daily streak), I would say Leetcode is a test of perseverance. I became a worse developer because I spent time on Leetcode instead of my open source projects, but it taught me marathon long grind. I truly believe its unintended positives are somewhat worthwhile.
> As someone who is top x%
Technically all of us are top x%, for some x!
> I truly believe its unintended positives are somewhat worthwhile.
If the point you're making is that solving complicated, synthetic programming challenges helped built your stamina and mental endurance, is there another way you could have built the same but in a much more productive and pleasurable manner?
Perhaps in a manner that would also have resulted in the improvement of your community or humanity as a whole instead of being the millionth person to "solve" the same exact problem?