Long ago I worked on a project where the whole team was so productive I gave myself cubital tunnel from typing so fast for so long. I'd feel needle jabs in my forearms randomly. Like while standing around. Doctor recommended surgery.
Avoiding surgery involved months of finger stretches, forearm massage, 2 keyboards and 2 mice at different elevations, typing with my hands hanging slack like a zombie. It worked. But, even typing this out 20 years later I can still feel the RSI hiding in the shadows. Since then I've avoided RSI by spending 10x more time thinking about code than typing it.
All that is setup for: There have been many times recently where I've thought "I know exactly what I want this code to look like. But, damn. That's going to be a lot of keypresses..." The effort is nothing. Risking nerve damage is the concern.
In those cases I have been thrilled be able to tell AI exactly what to make, how to refactor it, how to clean it up, clean it up more, yet more, still not done. All in less than 10% of the keypresses that would have been required to type it by hand.
Thanks for sharing. I feel the same way but did not express it in my post. I've sat down to do some side projects in the past and realized that even though my mind has energy (I hear this can be rare.. but it is true for me!) the hands would be tired. I've probably completed more side projects this year than in the last few, even if the total amount of time spent on them is higher.
Like you, there was always this specter of "don't overdo it".