Also, getting template of 100s of LOC saves time in writing it from scratch even if I know exactly what I'd need to write.
I suspect the typical ChatGPT user is using it for code that's beyond his ability to write. That being the whole point of his using it.
It follows that such code is likely beyond his ability to understand. But worse, beyond his ability to understand he doesn't understand it.
I haven't used any llm for code yet but most code I ever touched was mostly written by others, and I wouldn't have been able to write it from scratch, but was able to modify it, take only chunks out of the whole to use for something else, take only the structure and not the verbatim code and use in some other language, refactor to satisfy my own priorities vs the original, get useful results in languages I don't even know, etc etc.
It doesn't seem like using some pattern-matched uber-autocorrect code would be much different, especially once you understand that understandingless nature of what your getting.
I rarely know exactly what I need to write and writing it usually isn't the problem. Sans LLM, there have always been tools and techniques you can lean on, like syntax highlighting, auto completion, your compiler feedback, or unit tests.
I find that writing code consumes only a small percentage of my time. And while writing code is obviously where bugs originate, it's not where the big problems come from.
Making software good is the easy part, making the right software is where the trouble lies. It's why I spend most time not coding, but talking to people. Figuring out what needs to be done, how, when and why.