One issue is that I interpreted the parent as OR, not AND. "useless stuff OR productivity tools OR AI tools".

Moreover though, I'm not even saying you shouldn't do those things. I'm actually playing around with AI quite a bit, and certainly have created my share of useless/productivity tools. But it's not a flex to show off your own Flappy Birds or OpenNanoClaw clone, even if they are written in COBOL or MUMPS.

And they definitely do not have to be "extremely useful". But they should answer the question: what problem does it solve?