Unfortunately that is very true. Humans will always seek the easiest path to obtain a goal, it's in our nature. Even those who abstain now will probably start to use it so as to keep up the Greenie points later on. It's like the Leaderboard effect when it's turned on at Clublog.
This argument is as common as it is silly. Suppose some rare DX shows up on a frequency you happen to be on. It CQs. You work it, you're cleanly in the log.
Do you ostentatiously say, "no, that was too easy. I will wait for a gigantic pileup to form and then work it the
right way."
Some idiot probably does that. It's a big world. The rest of us go "is that guy crazy"?
Sometimes, DXing is hard, sometimes it is easy. Nobody
volunteers for hard. But, retrospectively, there is a group of hams that
celebrate it. And, forget the easy ones.
There are always things making DXing harder and making it easier. But the "I've got mine" crowd never wants it to be easier
for someone else.
Tiresome buncha Karens.
In a few years when this hits it's peak people will start to realize that the Hobby is mostly about computers just exchanging notes. At that point interest to get into the hobby will be almost zero.
This is frankly dumb. If people get tired of FT8 (no evidence of that yet), they'll move on to something else. Moreover, you are in control of your own station. Suppose that every DX station goes full automation. But you don't like it and so
you don't.
Has FT8 become any less fun
for you? Maybe. Maybe you don't care because you're not a Karen and are policing only your own behavior. Which hasn't changed.
FT8, as shipped by WSTJ-X anyway, is not a conversation any more than a typical contest QSO is now a conversation. In a serious contest station
those are mostly computers talking to computers, too. I don't see any fall off in contesting activity. I've been at a contest superstation. There are CW keys there. You use them about 2 per cent of the time. It's mostly by keyboard. Some stations will have the CW "reader" software configured to help you. There is SupercheckPartial to help you. There are spots, pretty darn accurate, to tell you what the call is -- a tremendous help in decoding. The computer may not, quite, be the one decoding, but this isn't the '50s and you aren't sitting there, all alone, with nothing but your ears to guide you. Too many points at stake for that.
Before you whine about ". . .but but I
hear it" and so on, remember that as like or not, you got there because of a
spot. A spot that may well have come from the
reverse beacon network spot. From one computer that was able (that time) to decode the DX CQ without human intervention, deliver it to the internet without human intervention and it shows up on your "needed" feed without your intervention because you set it up to do so months ago. Yes, you make the QSO without the computer, sort of, but everything else happened without you. Which was once decried as a terrible thing.
The hobby is
hopelessly tied up in computers already. People used to rail against spotting networks, especially over the internet. To this day, there are contest categories where people promise not to use them. But there is
no contest I know of where they are prohibited altogether. If there is, you'll never see me entering a log. The fact is, especially when DXing, we have made our peace with spotting networks. Nobody fights about it anymore and those that think it ruined DXing are off taking photos or something. The rest of us persevere.
If fully automated FT8 takes over (which I still take leave to doubt), I think you'll find plenty who don't care for it and their enjoyment won't change. The presence of a software feature doesn't mean it gets used. There's a ton of stuff in Excel that nobody gets around to using except statisticians or some such. I think you'll find that if every expedition insists on being fully automated, the supposedly sacred rules will change. And, we'll all go on, with Digital Karens wringing their hands in futility.
Nothing has ruined DXing. Each new generation
embraces what the elders are "sure" will ruin it. SSB already ruined DXing. DX Nets already ruined DXing. Spotting networks already ruined DXing. FT8 is surely ruining DXing. And hams are going to come to their senses and go back to RTTY, no spotting, no nets (that one mostly happened), and AM. Sure we are.
Strangely enough, DX endures all these fatal blows.