In my experience it's infinitely easier and faster to learn deep, "boring" things when you understand how they relate to your shallow and wide understanding of all of the related components.
The LLM is merely a tool. And you can use it for domain discovery that enables efficient deep learning at an unprecedented rate or you can develop a cursory understanding of a topic and think yourself an expert.
It’s true of most things. Running, dieting, weightlifting being uncomfortable is a sign of progress.
Learning is uncomfortable. Reading a difficult (for you) text in a language you don't understand is exhausting and confusing. But that is where improvement happens.
Its even worse since Duolingo added a life system (not sure if they still use it), where you were only allowed to make 3 mistakes before having to recharge your energy. If you get everything right, you are not learning, you SHOULD be making mistakes constantly. That shows you're actually being challenged.
One of the teachers on the college I went to had a note on his door with "If you understand everything you're doing - you're not learning anything.
This is the only path to mastery, or understanding if one prefers. There are no shortcuts to a person achieving deep understanding (a.k.a. "Aha!" moments).
Can a tool such as GenAI be beneficial to someone who already has done the work to understand? Absolutely. But it cannot infuse mastery into a person simply by its use.
Only the time and effort a person devotes can do that.
I think that could be called a shortcut, not in learning per se, but in the process of getting to learn.