GoKawiilI have seen various takes that beginners can still learn from CTFs as they always have. These takes miss the scoreboard. CTFs were not just a set of puzzles. They were a ladder. Even as a beginner, you had something to climb. You could see yourself improve, solve more challenges, place higher, join better teams, and become more competitive over time.
That feedback loop is breaking. If the visible scoreboard is dominated by teams using AI, a beginner is pushed toward using AI before they have built the instincts the AI is replacing. That is an anti-pattern. It prevents active learning, and active struggle is the bit that actually teaches you. It is also completely demotivating to put in real effort and see no visible progress because the ladder above you has been automated.
It also changes what challenge authors want to build. If beginner CTFs become another place where people quietly paste prompts and climb a scoreboard, authors have more reason to put their effort into learning platforms instead. At least on platforms like picoGym and HackTheBox, the expectation is education, and beginners are less incentivised to cheat themselves out of learning.
Beginners are better off using picoGym, HackTheBox, and other lab environments where the point is actually learning instead of pretending the public scoreboard still reflects human growth.