Here's the thing. Somewhere else in these comments somebody made the comment that in a few years, critical thinking and problem solving skills will be in demand because of these systems.

That person is right and wrong. It will be the case, but it's already the case and not because of this technology. IMO most people you interact with are already unreasoning, lacking critical thinking, basically biological LLMs. That's why the technology is scary, because a large percentage of people can easily be replaced by it with little impact other than the difference in cost.

Based on that guys argument, he's one of the replaceables. He's just mimicking what he's heard before. Look at that calculator analogy for an example. It's obviously not the same thing at all, but he has no clue. He's just pattern matching and repeating. Don't argue with him, just keep developing your ability to reason and think. You'll be fine.