I think the disconnect is that people who produce serious, researched and referenced work tend to believe that most work is like that. It is not. The majority of content created by humans is not referenced, it's not deeply researched, and a lot of it isn't even read, at least not closely. It sends a message just by existing in a particular place at a particular time. And its creation gainfully employs millions of people, which of course costs millions of dollars. That's why, warts and all, people are bullish on LLMs.