> There will always be need for top tier leetcoders. but barrier to entry will get much higher.
That's definitely a possibility. The barrier to entry won't be just in terms of how much you need to know, though, but also the fact that society as a whole might not require that many top tier leetcoders.
> There will be an effectively endless demand for anyone who can create 10x the value while only demanding 3x the pay of the typical worker.
That's one possible future.
Another future is one in which a single AI assisted "full tech developer" can solve all the coding problems of a company within say, one week. No company will require the services of an entire "full tech developer", so society will employ roughly one freelancer / consultant per ~30 large enough companies.
I've been interviewing with a lot of companies in the past few weeks. I'll agree that one week is probably optimistic, but most of them seem to have requirements that are in fact pretty simple.
Admittedly, reaching the one week stage might require better programming platforms and APIs.
That's definitely a possibility. The barrier to entry won't be just in terms of how much you need to know, though, but also the fact that society as a whole might not require that many top tier leetcoders.