I understand your perspective, as I held a similar view back in 2005. However, after spending six weeks pair-programming with a world-class programmer who focused heavily on E2E test automation, I realized just how mistaken I was. This programmer was at least 100 times more productive than any senior Java developer (contractor) on our team. After the shocking comparision (the hard results in the front of me), I practiced E2E test automation nearly every night and weekend, within 2 months, I became a 10X (compared to myself). Then, I went on a total different jounrney: starting my side projects, invited to speak at international software testing conferences, won an international programming award, authored a dozen of books, more importantly, became a Micro-ISV.

I was considering writing more to elaborate on the points you listed, but a quote comes to mind: "You don't know what you don't know." BTW, there were 755 claps from 144 people, who agreed with this article.

Anyway, if you are interested, you will find my answers (with solid results) to your questions or doubts.

"Showcase a 500+ End-to-End (via UI) Test Suite: E2E Test Automation is Surely Feasible for Large/Complex Apps", https://zhiminzhan.medium.com/showcase-a-500-end-to-end-via-ui-test-suite-e2e-test-automation-is-surely-feasible-for-590a45992a23

"Testing Pyramid Clarified", https://zhiminzhan.medium.com/testing-pyramid-clarified-af45535bed8b

"Reflections of Software I Created over the Last 14 Years in My Spare Time", https://zhiminzhan.medium.com/reflections-of-software-i-created-over-the-last-12-years-in-my-spare-time-7f7e94e160ec

"~70% of SDLC Effort is on Software Testing and Related Activities", https://zhiminzhan.medium.com/70-of-sdlc-effort-is-on-software-testing-or-related-activities-2a04ca5bef6d

"Why are Unit/Integration Testing and API Testing Not Enough for Real Agile?", https://zhiminzhan.medium.com/why-are-unit-integration-testing-and-api-testing-not-enough-for-real-agile-0acbcf928c23