Very true.

I realized recently that I've subconsciously routed-around merge conflicts as much as possible. My process has just subtly altered to make them less likely. To the point of which seeing a 3-way merge feels jarring. It's really only taking on AI tools that bought this to my attention.

Indeed. And plenty of successful merges end up with code that won't compile.

FWIW I've struggled to get AI tools to handle merge conflicts well (especially rebase) for the same underlying reason.