One thing I automated and immediately wanted back

I automated a task last month. Replaced about two hours of weekly work with a script that runs in seconds.

I felt efficient for about a week.

Then I realized the task was giving me something I did not know I needed. It was the thing I did while thinking about other things. The two hours were not wasted, they were where my best thinking happened. Now that it is automated,

I do not have that time, and I have not replaced it with anything.

There is a version of this where I use the freed time well. There is also the honest version where I fill it with something dumber and lose both the task and the thinking.

I automate the wrong things because I measure the time saved and never the value of the thing I removed.

Have you ever automated something and regretted it? And what makes a task worth keeping even when it could be automated?