Is the first AI draft useful even if you never use the final text?

I've started looking at AI writing a little differently.

I used to judge it based on whether the final output was good enough to use.

Now I'm wondering if that's even the right measurement.

Sometimes I ask AI to write something and the result isn't something I'd ever publish. The tone is wrong, some sentences are too formal, and the structure doesn't really sound like me.

But the draft still helps.

It gives me somewhere to start.

I'll see one sentence that I like, remove three paragraphs, completely change the introduction, and then write the rest myself.

In that situation, technically I didn't use the AI-generated article.

But it still saved me from staring at a blank document.

Maybe that's actually one of the most useful parts of AI writing: not producing the final answer, but giving you something to react to.

It's much easier for me to say, "No, I wouldn't say it like that" than to figure out exactly how I want to start from nothing.

So I'm curious:

Do you consider an AI-generated draft useful even when you end up rewriting almost all of it?

Or do you feel that if you're changing most of the text, the AI didn't really help?

And what's your preferred workflow?

Blank page → AI draft → edit?

Or ideas → AI outline → write yourself?

Or do you just let AI produce the entire thing and make small corrections?

I think people sometimes focus too much on whether AI can produce a perfect final draft, when maybe the more interesting question is whether it can make the writing process easier.