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> The counterpoint to it is that it requires fewer developers to automate a process than it requires to write it.

Not by definition. Rather, only once it becomes easier to automate than to do by hand, we automate.

The first part is technically true - the automation team can exceed the original team, but this may be a special case of "engineers untangling a mess of functionality accumulated over the years." The second part has an exception of its own - there doesn't necessarily have to be a complexity threshold, developers "over-automate" simple processes all the time (e.g. Microsoft).

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