I asked it to help me turn a 6 page wall of acronyms into a CV tailored to a specific job I'd seen and the response from Gemini was that I was over qualified, it was under paid and that really, I was letting myself down. It was surprisingly brutal about it.
I found a different job that although I really wanted, felt I was underqualified for. I only threw it at Gemini as a moment of 3am spite, thinking it'd give me another reality check, this time in the opposite direction. Instead it hyped me up, helped me write my CV to highlight how their wants overlapped with my experience, and I'm now employed in what's turning out to be the most interesting job of my career with exciting tech and lovely people.
I found the whole experience extremely odd. and never expected it to actually argue with or reality check me. Very glad it did though.
That advice has stuck with me, and I try to have the least taste I can. I use $20 headphones and a $200 TV because I can't tell what "good" is, and I enjoy music and movies as much as my friends with $600 headphones and $3k TVs do.
E.g. a great designer will be able to design houses in very different styles, because they can understand what gives each of those styles its own specific beauty.
There's a lot to say about this, but I think your coffee friend never passed the snob-like point, which is a point I think most people reach when they learn just enough about something and that makes them feel superior. But if you keep going, then you start to understand what makes Italian coffee great as well, for example.
Wrt to coffee, I speak from experience, after going through very expensive equipment, I have learned to enjoy very different styles of roasts, coffees, etc. I still have preferences, I'm just far less judgmental.
Applies to most of my hobbies, I've seen this trajectory very often.