Understanding can only come from repeated exposure. The less exposure, the less understanding. You certainly don't have to write code by hand any more (standards and quality aside), but it feels like gambling to say or even suggest that understanding how stuff works is a thing of the past (the increasingly popular counter-argument to OP).

I feel like most ghosts of our ancestors are screaming "you can't be fucking serious!" across the void. I'm routinely shocked by just how many people anecdotally seem to be clamoring to think less and do less, oblivious to the reality that those are the things which animate us. Without those, we're husks.