Tried using Arduino code generators to speed up a small project not sure if it actually saved time

I’ve been working on a small Arduino-based project recently (simple sensor + LED setup), and I wanted to speed things up by trying some code generator tools instead of writing everything from scratch.

At first, it felt like a win. The basic setup worked quickly, and I didn’t have to spend time writing boilerplate code.

But once I started adding slightly more logic (conditions, timing, combining inputs), I noticed I was spending more time fixing and understanding the generated code than I probably would have if I had just written it myself.

It made me realize that while these tools seem helpful at the start, they might actually slow things down once the project becomes even a little more complex.

Curious if anyone else building small hardware or software projects has tried similar shortcuts did it actually save you time in the long run, or did you end up going back to doing things manually?