I totally agree with you on the first bit, but I also think that I am way better at deciding on how to refactor code bases than the LLM is.

Right now, I put models in low thinking mode during my refactors and hate waiting. I would much rather have a faster model that that maybe was slightly stupider, and I would wait far less long between prompts where it needs my valuable input.

Models that are dumb, but humble and fast, can be fine.